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From: waugh@dg-rtp.dg.com (Matthew Waugh)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: common bugs in C programs
Message-ID: <1820@xyzzy.UUCP>
Date: 4 Jan 90 21:34:55 GMT
References: <61500001@uicbert.eecs.uic.edu> <5860@umd5.umd.edu> <1990Jan3.095204.6979@gdt.bath.ac.uk>
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Reply-To: waugh@rtp04.dg.com (Matthew Waugh)
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In article <1990Jan3.095204.6979@gdt.bath.ac.uk> exspes@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P E Smee) writes:
>In article <5860@umd5.umd.edu> lgollub@umd5.umd.edu (Lewis R. Gollub) writes:
>>     They propose using the preprocessor to define various substitutions
>>of standard C code for more easily read programmer's code.
>>     In this case you would include a line
>>
>>#define EQ ==
>>      if (a EQ b)
>>
>I keep a copy of their 'easy_c.h' lying around as an example of what
>the preprocessor can do, but I don't actually approve of the use of
>this technique.  While it can make reading the code easier for the
>person who is accustomed to using it, it suffers from several
>shortcomings, which are in my opinion fairly major.


I once had the "privilege" of working with someone who successfully,
via the use of the pre-processor, turned C into Pascal, including
such fascinating additions as

#define		then	
#define		do
#define		begin	{
#define		end	}

I personally hated it, but I used to take a perverse delight in
generating programs that would either completly blow out of
the water with wierd and wonderful error messages due to these
translations, or inter-mix C and "pseudo-Pascal" to produce
programs with a truly awful readability factor.

Ho Hum, to each his/her own I guess.

Mat

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