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Path: utzoo!utcs!flaps
From: flaps@utcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: microsoft C considered stupid
Message-ID: <1986Jun20.01:10:46.477@utcs.uucp>
Date: Fri, 20-Jun-86 01:10:46 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcs.1986Jun20.01:10:46.477
Posted: Fri Jun 20 01:10:46 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Jun-86 04:00:40 EDT
Reply-To: flaps@utcs.uucp (Alan J Rosenthal)
Organization: University of Toronto
Lines: 28


I have just received MS C for the IBM PC/AT running MS-DOS.

The manuals, besides being poorly and sometimes inaccurately written,
encourage all sorts of stupid things.  I would like to share two things
with you.

1. They have instituted a pre-processor conditional of the form
	#if defined(MANIFEST_CONSTANT).  Furthermore, the manual notes that
	use of #ifdef is "discouraged" (though at least they support it).
	Here in net.lang.c several C revision proposals have been rejected on
	the grounds that they don't add enough to the language to merit the
	inconvenience of a change.  This change from #ifdef adds absolutely
	nothing to the language!

2. The manual does not permit something of the form:
	struct tag { typedeclaration value; ... };
	although the compiler does.  The manual requires that you actually
	declare something with the struct.  This is not a feasible restriction
	on C and in fact MS C is not so restricted.

In other words, my complaint about MS C is that there are mindless restrictions
(in typical IBM style).  The examples in the book are all stupid and unclear.
I don't know how I would learn C there if I hadn't first learned it here.

--
Alan "IBM-hater" Rosenthal
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