Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!uxc!uxc.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Re: C Ternary Conditional Expression?
Message-ID: <50600002@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 2 Jun 89 20:37:00 GMT
References: <950025@hpclcdb.HP.COM>
Lines: 26
Nf-ID: #R:hpclcdb.HP.COM:950025:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:50600002:000:941
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald    Jun  2 15:37:00 1989


<(Subject is the Pascal -C flame war).

I have never really programmed in Pascal; I went from Fortran and
assembler to C. It took me about 5 minutes to learn and understand
the syntax and importance of such C constructs as
    a = x++;

    a += x;

    if( a = y) q = p++;

and so forth: macro expansions and function side effects.

C's pointer declaration syntax is indeed a disaster area, but the
utility is enormous. Virtually anything can be written in straightforward
C, including OS code, device drivers, and interrupt handlers.

The best way to understand the difference between C and PAscal is to realize
that C was designed to implement an entire operating system from the ground
up, and Pascal was designed as a teaching language, essentially a toy.

A so it is today: C is for secure grown-ups, Pascal is for the insecure.

Test for the PAscal lover: translate all of Unix into (legal, ISO
standard, with NO extensions) Pascal.