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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#null,net">mud-dev#null,net</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: <A HREF="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</A></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Sat, 17 May 97 13:44:14 -0700</LI>
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<PRE>
On 16/05/97 at 11:22 PM, cg#ami-cg,graysage.edmonton.ab.ca (Chris Gray)
said: >[John L:]
>: My only disagreement is with using the curly
>:brackets to distinguish code blocks. I think you score some good
>:points with better compiler parsing and debugging.
>:However, I think they are more convenient to type, easier to remember
>:and distinguish themselves better than 'fi', 'od', 'esac', etc.
>::-)
>Ah, but you have to count using the shift key in the convenience of
>braces versus short reserved words! :-)
>When I was designing a language like this a few years back, a friend
>commented that I really shouldn't be using 'od' to end 'for' and 'while'
>loops. Algol68 does that because it really only has one loop construct,
>and only the 'do' and 'od' are required. So, he said I should be using
>'rof' and 'elihw'. Maybe, but after I spoke 'elihw' to him for a couple
>of weeks he relented!
A key part of C's use of braces is implicit in the base design of the
language (and obvious when looking at the BNF diagram). In C, any place
that a statement can be used (in a non-expression context), a pair of
braces containing one or more statements can be used instead. Its a
slightly subtle and very pleasing piece of orthogonality, and is why:
if (x) y ();
is just as acceptable as:
if (x) {
y ();
}
and:
if (x) {
y ();
z ();
...etc.
}
I find this is one of the great beautiful simplicities of C over the the
do/od, if/fi, while/elihw type syntaxes.
There are lots of other more interesting examples, such as creating very
locally scoped automatics:
int funcx (...)
{
int var;
...code...
{
int var; // A new variable, unique from the one above
...code...
}
...mode code...
}
This last happens to be a trick I use a lot.
--
J C Lawrence Internet: claw#null,net
----------(*) Internet: coder#ibm,net
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...
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<li><strong><A NAME="00574" HREF="msg00574.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> silovic#srce,hr (Miroslav Silovic)</li></ul>
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<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA (Chris Gray)</LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00540" HREF="msg00540.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</A></strong>,
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Sun 18 May 1997, 03:43 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00544" HREF="msg00544.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</A></strong>,
Dan Root <a href="mailto:dar#thekeep,org">dar#thekeep,org</a>, Sun 18 May 1997, 04:19 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00578" HREF="msg00578.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</A></strong>,
Miroslav Silovic <a href="mailto:silovic#srce,hr">silovic#srce,hr</a>, Mon 19 May 1997, 08:44 GMT
</LI>
</ul>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00521" HREF="msg00521.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</A></strong>,
Chris Gray <a href="mailto:cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA">cg#ami-cg,GraySage.Edmonton.AB.CA</a>, Sat 17 May 1997, 13:02 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00546" HREF="msg00546.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</A></strong>,
coder <a href="mailto:coder#ibm,net">coder#ibm,net</a>, Sun 18 May 1997, 04:28 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00574" HREF="msg00574.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</A></strong>,
Miroslav Silovic <a href="mailto:silovic#srce,hr">silovic#srce,hr</a>, Mon 19 May 1997, 08:04 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
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</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00529" HREF="msg00529.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Languages</A></strong>,
Jon A. Lambert <a href="mailto:jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com">jlsysinc#ix,netcom.com</a>, Sun 18 May 1997, 00:32 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00535" HREF="msg00535.html">Support mud [was Re: Languages]</A></strong>,
Matt Chatterley <a href="mailto:root#mpc,dyn.ml.org">root#mpc,dyn.ml.org</a>, Sun 18 May 1997, 02:53 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00553" HREF="msg00553.html">Support mud [was Re: Languages]</A></strong>,
Oliver Jowett <a href="mailto:oliver#sa-search,massey.ac.nz">oliver#sa-search,massey.ac.nz</a>, Sun 18 May 1997, 07:48 GMT
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