Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Piles of plusses (was Re: comma
Message-ID: <1541@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 3 May 89 07:00:53 GMT
References: <810044@hpsemc.HP.COM> <47800031@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <1526@auspex.auspex.com> <1986@Portia.Stanford.EDU>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 15

>If it's a good thing in a language to declare all variables, to avoid
>problems with typos, and if it's a good thing not to place this burden
>on the programmer ... these might seem like conflicting factors, but
>in fact they don't conflict if the interface, rather than the
>compiler, is what declares variables for the programmer.

Yes, but the posting to which I was replying was touting Fortran as
being wonderful because it automatically declared things; perhaps there
are Fortran interfaces that will do so and catch typos, but I've not
seen one.  I don't think of the requirement to declare things as being
*ipso facto* a good thing, but I *do* think of the ability to have the
system catch certain errors before I start running my code as *ipso
facto* a good thing; requiring me to declare things does help the system
catch certain errors, and I'm willing to pay what is for me a small
price for that.