Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!mtune!codas!ateng!chip
From: chip@ateng.UUCP (Chip Salzenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Modern langauges
Message-ID: <149@ateng.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jan 88 17:55:39 GMT
References: <11072@brl-adm.ARPA> <1374@sugar.UUCP>
Reply-To: chip@ateng.UUCP (Chip Salzenberg)
Organization: A T Engineering, Tampa, FL
Lines: 28

In article <1374@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>
>In article ... V4039%TEMPLEVM.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (Stan Horwitz) writes:
>>Its syntax is strange
>>but that can be fixed to some extent by simply creating a file with
>>#DEFINE statements defining thins in easier terms.
>
>This is the greatest way in the world to create totally unreadable and
>unmaintainable code.

So true.  Peter Bourne wrote the Bourne shell using macros that make the
program itself look like a shell script:

	/* Here is some code in Bourne shell style
	 */
	IF a == 1 THEN this; that; the_other FI
	WHILE condition()
	DO      stuff;
		more stuff
	OD

This code is so difficult to read and maintain that I gave up on it and
ported the C shell instead. (Thanks, Bill!)

-- 
Chip Salzenberg                 UUCP: "{codas,uunet}!ateng!chip"
A T Engineering                 My employer's opinions are a trade secret.
    "Anything that works is better than anything that doesn't."  -- me