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From: kolding@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Koldinger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Re-Reply
Message-ID: <2638@zen.berkeley.edu>
Date: Mon, 25-May-87 16:07:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: zen.2638
Posted: Mon May 25 16:07:07 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 26-May-87 03:26:27 EDT
References: <8705242101.aa27497@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA> <2635@zen.berkeley.edu>
Sender: news@zen.berkeley.edu
Reply-To: kolding@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Koldinger)
Distribution: world
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 32
Keywords: C, Ada

In article <2635@zen.berkeley.edu> schung@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Stephen the Greatest) writes:
>
>
>	"Is there anything that language A can do that language B cannot do?"
>
>	Is there anything that Pascal and Ada can do and that C cannot do?
>Is there anything that C can do that Ada and Pascal cannot do?  Is there 
>anything that Pascal and Ada can do easily that C cannot?  Is there anything
>that C can do easily that Ada and Pascal cannot?

    There is one thing that is easy to do in Pascal-type languages that is very
difficult in C.  Write readable code.  C programs have a tendency to be
extremely wild concoctions of symbols such as:

	x=((fp->_flag&_READ)==0||(fp->_flag&(_EOF|_ERR))!=0);

And that wonderful statment is out of an 'instructional' book.
    As for C's power, C can't do anything that Modula-2 (Pascal done right)
can't, and Modula-2 code is, as a general rule, much easier to read than C.
Part of the problem is probably the machismo that C programmers seem to
have (I can reduce those twenty lines to two.  So what if I'm the only one
who can read them.  Hope I don't forget what they do.  Comments?  Who
needs 'em?).


		_   /|				Eric
		\`o_O'				kolding@cory.berkeley.edu
  		  ( )     "Ack Ack Ack"		ucbvax!cory!kolding
   	    	   U

Disclaimer:  The University nevers listens to me anyways, but if they really
   want to claim these opinions, they're more than welcome to them.