Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!dogie.macc.wisc.edu!uwvax!rutgers!att!westmark!mole-end!mat
From: mat@mole-end.UUCP (Mark A Terribile)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: fortran to C converter
Message-ID: <154@mole-end.UUCP>
Date: 28 Apr 89 08:46:25 GMT
References: <9244@alice.UUCP> <12716@lanl.gov>
Organization: mole-end--private system.  admin: mole-end!newtnews
Lines: 36

> > Speaking of doubleprecision, the next topic of discussion is why C
> > believes in whitespace.

(Did I say we shouldn't'a started this?)
 
> Yes. For example, why does C treat a carriage return as whitespace?
> Nobody programs like that.  Most people put _one_ statement per line,
> so the use of _both_ semicolon and carriage return as statement terminators
> seems redundant.  Why does C choose to ignore the "wrong" one?

There's a 4-letter word that's considered very impolite on netnews.  It's
 D U M B .  Well, that's what this is.  (And I'm violating nettiquitte by
an ad-hominem attack, I know.)

(Or else D U M B is what I am for taking this claptrap seriously.)

Whitespace is not a statement terminator; whitespace seperates adjacent tokens
that might otherwise be seen as one token.  Why was it done this way?  At the
risk of getting the story all wrong, it's because the experience of some very
bright, very experienced people suggested that this way works better than any
other that's been tried.

I suppose that you'd rather write continuation line markers than semicolons?
FORTRAN uses the end of the line; PL/I (which came later) uses semicolons.

Besides, just what constitutes a statement?   { statement-list } is a
statement.  Where do you put the newlines?  (Don't bother answering, please!)

> And, of course, THANKS.  Now I can claim to have been actually flamed by
> Dennis Ritchie HIMSELF on _two_ occasions!  8-)

He's flamed far better than you, kiddo!
-- 

(This man's opinions are his own.)
From mole-end				Mark Terribile