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Re: Nasty language semantics (Was: error message I don understand) [message #174916 is a reply to message #174913] Sun, 17 July 2011 22:06 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Tim Streater is currently offline  Tim Streater
Messages: 328
Registered: September 2010
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In article <ivvee0$eqg$1(at)news(dot)albasani(dot)net>,
The Natural Philosopher <tnp(at)invalid(dot)invalid> wrote:

> Tim Streater wrote:
>> In article <ivv775$egh$1(at)dont-email(dot)me>,
>> August Karlstrom <fusionfile(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 2011-07-17 18:31, Peter H. Coffin wrote:
>>>> On Sun, 17 Jul 2011 16:50:28 +0200, August Karlstrom wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > On 2011-07-17 15:03, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> >> This isn't mathematics - it is programming, as people have told you
>>>> >> before. If you want mathematics, get a chalkboard.
>>>> >
>>>> > Don't be silly. There are several programming languages in which `='
>>>> > denote (surprise) equality.
>>>>
>>>> Very few that use it alone.
>>>
>>> Pascal, Modula-2, Eiffel and Ada all use `=' for equality and `:=' for
>>> assignment.
>>
>> A good enough reason not to use these languages.
>
> The chief reason I gave up on Pascal after spending 4 hours trying to
> make a variable length bitfield containing potentially different sorts
> of entities depending on what was in the first few bits...into some form
> of syntax that made it usable, was that in the end rewriting the whole
> program in C was quicker than trying to make the existing Pascal work.
>
> And that's the problem with these academic languages. When you meet a
> situation never envisaged in the academics brain that created them, you
> are basically shafted.

Pascal was not originally intended for other than academic use. As
designed and implemented by Wirth, you couldn't even do compilation of
separate modules for later linking together. Trouble is, students who
learnt it then decided it was wonderful, went out into the wide world,
and persuaded clueless software managers that this was the language to
make more widely available.

Its worst defect was that strings of different lengths were different
types. Also at the time academics were pushing the
single-entry-single-exit bullshit, so there was no return statement.

It ended up as a plethora of different implementations, all getting
around the limitations in different incompatible ways, which is probably
what did for it.

--
Tim

"That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed,
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted" -- Bill of Rights 1689

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