Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!tank!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!s.cs.uiuc.edu!carroll
From: carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Pascal Semicolons
Message-ID: <208100003@s.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 21 Dec 88 18:27:00 GMT
References: <2392@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
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Nf-ID: #R:ncsuvx.ncsu.edu:2392:s.cs.uiuc.edu:208100003:000:1203
Nf-From: s.cs.uiuc.edu!carroll    Dec 21 12:27:00 1988


/* Written  8:47 am  Dec 15, 1988 by mauney@cscadm.ncsu.edu in s.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.lang.misc */
/* ---------- "Re: Pascal Semicolons" ---------- */
In article <208100002@s.cs.uiuc.edu> carroll@s.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>I always thought that the 'no ; before END' part of PASCAL was one of the worst
>'features' of the language.

This is one of my pet peeves.  That so many people do not know the
easy answer to this problem signifies a serious problem in
our educational system.  Now watch my lips:

==>     IT IS NOT AN ERROR TO PUT A SEMICOLON BEFORE AN END   <==
==>     IN THE STATEMENT SECTION OF A PASCAL PROGRAM.         <==
Jon Mauney  
/* End of text from s.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.lang.misc */

Ah, I have gotten a flood of mail about this. I do, personally, go ahead
and put the semi-colon before the END, when I have my druthers.
Unfortunately, I have taken too many classes where 'style' counted more
than code, and you got docked for having 'extraneous' semi-colons.
Also, the point was brought up during a discussion about an Algol-68
guru 'falling from grace' because he had started to put the extra
semi-colons in - i.e., I was arguing against those who thing you shouldn't
put the semi-colon in.