Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!psuvax1!vu-vlsi!snark!eric From: eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++ Subject: Re: Should C++ follow C's footsteps? Message-ID: Date: 25 Feb 89 04:54:44 GMT References: <4800051@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <8902@alice.uucp> <2438@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> Organization: Somewhere in Hyperspace Lines: 37 Warning: mild soapboxing by a confirmed C partisan follows. In <2438@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> orr%cs.glasgow.ac.uk@nss.cs.ucl.ac.uk (Fraser Orr) writes: > 1) I think most people would agree that a great deal of it is pretty > crummy (do I presume to much? does anyone actually like the "for" loop > syntax?) C's for() construct is the most powerful available in any real-world language. If you know what you're doing you can write things like linked-list walkers in a way that packages all the traversal logic into the (;;) part. I like having that power, and am *not* interested in efforts to `fix' the construct if they would involve restricting it to some `safe' pascal-oid step-by-n thing. > 2) by having it so close to C syntax, one might easily be decieved into > thinking that it is the same, thus leading to all sorts of errors. If > your going to create a new language, either it has got to be 100% (with > the exception of keywords and things of that kind perhaps) compatible, > or VERY different. Uh huh. I suppose you also think that either a) English ought to be frozen as it is now, or b) we ought to junk it tomorrow and switch to Esperanto. In the real world, languages evolve. And human beings (even programmers) are pretty good at coping with such changes. C itself is a rather differently- flavored language now than it was in 1976, having moved steadily towards a more comprehensive and stricter type system -- and this is good! Those of us who enjoy C and have learned to use it well aren't confused by the changes in it, or by C++, nor are we fazed by the prospect of further evolution. The right thing to do about this kind of process is: lead, follow, or get out of the way. -- Eric S. Raymond (the mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews) Email: eric@snark.uu.net CompuServe: [72037,2306] Post: 22 S. Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355 Phone: (215)-296-5718