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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: C & fp (really parens)
Message-ID: <5755@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 14-Apr-87 02:42:39 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.5755
Posted: Tue Apr 14 02:42:39 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Apr-87 04:45:07 EST
References: <6800@brl-adm.ARPA> <5739@brl-smoke.ARPA> <814@viper.UUCP> <5746@brl-smoke.ARPA> <833@viper.UUCP>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 32

In article <833@viper.UUCP> john@viper.UUCP (John Stanley) writes:
>Oh, we're listening Doug...  You're the one who dosen't seem to get the
>point.  The point is, we don't like the construct X3J11 has come up with.

I understand that; my point was that much of the flaming has shown
misperceptions about what the C language was like even BEFORE X3J11.
Most of what people are saying they don't like about "X3J11"
parentheses rules has actually been part of the C language all along.
And the rules aren't the way they are by accident, either, but rather
because that's they way the designers of C decided they needed to be,
for good reasons.  I like them just they way they are, and I have done
a lot of numerical programming in C (Fortran, too, for that matter).

>Parens are intuative.  They fall into the wyciwyg (What you C is what you
>get) system of programming.

Semantics for parentheses in a programming language are certainly not
intuitive, or at least to the degree that they are, they're not unique!
Lisp, Fortran, C, and assemblers all give different meanings to
parentheses.  Arguments that Fortran rules are "better" are specious.
Arguments that Fortran rules are more mathematically correct are wrong.
Furthermore, C is not Fortran; it has its own unique set of
characteristics (such as pointers and preprocessing) that help determine
the viability of proposed language features.

>How about providing the address and telling me how
>much money I need to send so I can start...?

I don't know that the draft American National Standard X3.159-198x is
definitely still available now that the public review period has closed
(where were you?), but if so it can be ordered from Global Engineering
Documents, Inc. by calling (800)854-7179.  Single copy price was $65.00.