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From: todd@uhccux.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: DeSmet C -> Microsoft C
Message-ID: <403@uhccux.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 31-Mar-87 02:15:42 EST
Article-I.D.: uhccux.403
Posted: Tue Mar 31 02:15:42 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 1-Apr-87 07:31:30 EST
References: <3380@osu-eddie.UUCP>
Reply-To: todd@uhccux.UUCP (The Perplexed Wiz)
Distribution: na
Organization: U. of Hawaii, Manoa (Honolulu)
Lines: 36
Keywords: DeSmet C, syntax, translate

In article <3380@osu-eddie.UUCP> holly@osu-eddie.UUCP (Joe Hollingsworth) writes:
>Lately, I've come across some public domain C programs written in
>DeSmet C.  However, I don't have a DeSmet C compiler and I haven't
>found any switches in my Microsoft C compiler that will enable it
>to recognize the DeSmet C Syntax.  (If you're not familiar with this
>syntax, it seems to like to do away with { and }.  Using a $ for {
>and either indentation or blank lines to signal a }.  Also appears
>to use :: for ||.  What else I don't know.)

Whoa...Before some people get the idea that DeSmet C is some strange
C mutation, let me say that I own both DeSmet C and Microsoft C 4.0.
DeSmet C *IS NOT* some strange C variant.  It does not use '$' for '{'
or '::' for '||'.  As it says on page 4.3 of my DeSmet C 2.5 manual:
"C88 compiles C programs that conform to the standard definition of the
C language as described in the book _The C Programming Language_ by
Brian W. Kernighan and Dennis M. Ritchie."

It sounds to me like the code you are looking at was damaged in
transit by something like a brain-dead EBCIDIC (sp?) to ASCII
translator.

Although I use Microsoft C 4.0 for most of my PC based C programming,
I do not hesitate to go with DeSmet C for a rapid prototyping project.
It is follows K&R closely enough for me to be happy.

BTW: the only reason I have not updated from DeSmet 2.5 to 3.0 is
that I am waiting to see Borland Turbo C or the much rumored
Microsoft QuickC (anyone know anything about this one?).

...todd

-- 
Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii Computing Center
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