Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!im4u!ut-sally!ico!rcd
From: rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.modula2
Subject: Re: Wirth's paper "From Modula to Oberon"
Summary: nomination for 'tragic flaw'
Message-ID: <5260@ico.ISC.COM>
Date: 20 May 88 20:42:56 GMT
References: <INFO-M2%88051808492544@DB0TUI11> <17451@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp, Boulder, CO
Lines: 16

John Nagle:
>       In each of Wirth's languages there is some tragic flaw, something
> that drives users straight up the walls.  What will it be in Oberon?

The lack of a counted loop ("for" statement) gets my nomination for tragic
flaw.

With most imperative languages in the past 30+ years having a counted loop,
you'd think it would have proved its merit.  Even languages that don't have
it (like C) have evolved paradigms for it that are accepted among the
language's users.  [That is, most C programmers write in the form
"for (i=0; i<n; i++)" without a second thought; that way they don't worry
about the various off-by-1's like starting at 1 or running to <=n...]
-- 
Dick Dunn      UUCP: {ncar,cbosgd,nbires}!ico!rcd       (303)449-2870
   ...Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.