Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU!dillon
From: dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: lint...
Message-ID: <8902120707.AA14223@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 12 Feb 89 07:07:07 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 18

:I don't call agreeing with that. I must have misread it. As a position
:statement, I think beginners should be taught good style, and
:penalized for writing unreadable code. Forcing structure on
:experienced programmers won't make them better programmers. Forcing
:structure on beginners is part of teaching them to write readable
:code, which is part of being a good programmer. Of course, others may
:wish to argue that a good programmer produces tight, bug-free code,
:does it quickly, with no regard as to readability.
	
	I agree.  But Lint does not, never has, and never will force the kind
of structure a beginner needs.  Oh, I admit it checks a *few* possible
structural problems, but so little compared to the myrid possibilitiies that
I think anything one might gain from using lint for that purpose they would 
loose even more being fooled by what it doesn't catch, as well as not learn 
as much as they might in the art of debugging.
	

				-Matt