Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: comma operator: keep away? Message-ID: <1989Apr26.215113.10807@utzoo.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <10007@smoke.BRL.MIL> <498@lakart.UUCP> <10057@smoke.BRL.MIL> <628@gonzo.UUCP> <28831@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1989Apr24.172219.817@utzoo.uucp> <28890@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <2495@bucsb.UUCP> Date: Wed, 26 Apr 89 21:51:13 GMT In article <2495@bucsb.UUCP> crewman@bucsb.bu.edu writes: >Getting back to the poster of the above article, why is the person who likes >the comma construct an amateur? Is it because s/he likes a unique feature >of C? Or is it really because the above "professional" would get confused >reading such code? In a business which so sorely "needs professionals", why >are we bending over backwards to make our programs easier to read for ama- >teurs? We are not bending over backwards to make our programs easier to read for amateurs; we are bending over backwards to make them easier to read for our fellow professionals. We are not trying to meet some minimum standard of readability, and indulging our little egos beyond that; we are trying to make the stuff AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE even if it hurts. >C is designed to be a low-level language... Opinions vary on this. How do you write "*p++ = *q++" in Fortran? Which is the higher level language, based on this comparison? (Or any comparison, apart from the marginal issue of complex numbers.) >...as C programmers, we have the tools to make powerful programs compact. Yet >we are constantly advised to throw away these tools. I believe that >that is VERY unprofessional. As C programmers, we have the tools to make powerful programs utterly unreadable if we make the slightest effort in that direction. Making them readable, on the other end, takes significant work and considerable restraint. -- Mars in 1980s: USSR, 2 tries, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology 2 failures; USA, 0 tries. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu