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From: dupuy@columbia.UUCP (Alex Dupuy)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: condition convention 'if (10 == j)...'
Message-ID: <505@columbia.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Apr-85 11:27:32 EDT
Article-I.D.: columbia.505
Posted: Sun Apr 28 11:27:32 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 29-Apr-85 07:24:34 EDT
References: <brl-tgr.9509> <137@bocklin.UUCP> <1456@amdahl.UUCP> <2140@sun.uucp>
Reply-To: dupuy@columbia.UUCP (Alex Dupuy)
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 49

In article <2140@sun.uucp> shannon@sun.uucp (Bill Shannon) writes:
> > > To prevent silly mistakes like 
> > >	if (j = 10)
> > > I usually write
> > >	if (10 == j)
> > > By putting the constant first, I ensure that the compiler will catch the 
> > > typo.
> >  
> 
> [Flames...]
> 
> People that write "if (10 == j)" probably also write "while (1)".
> What do you mean, "while 1"???  Are you expecting "1" to change???
> Everyone knows this should be written "for (;;)", read "forever".
> 
>					Bill Shannon

I agree that "if (10 == j)" looks ridiculous, but to prevent ridiculous errors
like
	 "if (j = 10)"			    /* j is set to 10 */
 or
	 "if (j != NULL & j->next != NULL)" /* bitwise AND evaluates j _and_
					       j->next even if j is nil  */

and to make my code more human readable (:-) I use the following #definitions:

#define and	&&
#define or	||
#define is	==
#define isnt	!=
#define not	!

As a result, my code looks like

	 "if (j is 10)" 
	 "if (j isnt NULL and j->next isnt NULL)"

which even Pascal types (like me) can read.  And there is *no* way to make
those silly mistakes shown above.  I even throw in another:

#define ever	;;

so I can have *real* "for (ever)" loops.

						Alexander Dupuy

Ok, go ahead and flame me for not being a strict K&R type who likes C to
look like a mess of proofreaders marks (and if you think this isn't 
"heretical" enough, you should see my indentation style :-).