Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!charon!steven
From: steven@cwi.nl (Steven Pemberton)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: emphasising keywords in Algol
Message-ID: <8874@boring.cwi.nl>
Date: 7 Mar 90 16:45:05 GMT
References: <1990Feb20.235034.21698@Neon.Stanford.EDU> <10975@saturn.ADS.COM> <451@argus.mrcu>
Sender: news@cwi.nl (The Daily Dross)
Reply-To: steven@cwi.nl (Steven Pemberton)
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
Lines: 17

In article <451@argus.mrcu> paj@uk.co.gec-mrc (Paul Johnson) writes:
> I would imagine that the emphasise-keyword tradition dates back to
> ALGOL, and (qwerty strikes again) was introduced then because it
> seemed like a good idea.

I doubt that they did it purely because 'it seemed like a good idea'.
My impression is that they thought very hard about every issue that
affected the language.

One advantage of having keywords in another font is that the issue of
which space character to use in identifiers disappears: you use the
space-character itself (which is after all the best choice :-)

Steven Pemberton, CWI, Amsterdam; steven@cwi.nl
"Let us go then you and I/while the night is laid out against the sky/like a
					smear of mustard on an old pork pie"
Nice poem Tom. I have ideas for changes though, why not come over? - Ezra