Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Path: utzoo!henry From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) Subject: Re: Language principles Message-ID: <1990Feb9.181942.24649@utzoo.uucp> Organization: U of Toronto Zoology References: <490@dino.cs.iastate.edu> Date: Fri, 9 Feb 90 18:19:42 GMT In article chuckp@ncr-fc.FtCollins.NCR.com (Chuck Phillips) writes: >John> ZERO-ONE-INFINITY: The only reasonable numbers are zero, one, and >John> infinity. > >On most of the points I agree. However, this restriction seems a bit >bizarre... Could you provide a bit more context to this? ... The point of this rule, which goes back a long way, is that an arbitrary limit will usually get in the way eventually. If the system only allows you ten file descriptors, somebody will come up with a program that wants eleven and gets horribly contorted if it has to work within the limit. If your language limits arrays to a maximum of three dimensions, somebody will need four. And so on. The only good numbers are zero (don't do it at all), one (do it but don't let the issue of "how many" come up), and infinity (let the user decide how many he wants). -- SVR4: every feature you ever | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology wanted, and plenty you didn't.| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu