Message-Id: <1.5.4.32.19971216164341.006b44f4@dce03.ipt.br>
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Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 14:43:41 -0200
To: ulric AT evelin DOT edu DOT stockholm DOT se (Ulric Eriksson), djgpp AT delorie DOT com
From: Cesar Scarpini Rabak <csrabak AT dce03 DOT ipt DOT br>
Subject: Re: Scripting language library
Precedence: bulk

At 20:48 15/12/97 GMT, Ulric Eriksson wrote:
>In article <3494eaf4 DOT 492512 AT news DOT xs4all DOT nl>,
>Hans Bezemer <hansoft AT geocities DOT com> wrote:
>>
>>There is nowhere in the standard AFAIK that using the preprocessor in this way
>>is prohibited. As a matter of fact, it compiles cleanly on a host of
platforms.
>>If you also had a look at the documentation, you would have found that the use
>>of this "trick" is documented.
>
>The problem is that your solution (make the newbie learn Hans' Version
>Of C Which Looks Like Pascal) is worse than the problem (make the newbie
>learn C).

Also, right now that C has almost 20 years( since the famous K&R book),
excepting its more restricted use in the Bell Labs; it is not anymore an
arcane language with an exotic syntax, but all the contrary (no flames here
only a factual observation) many works which used Pascal (or Pascal like
pseudo-languages) have switched to C (or C-like pseudo-languages) for their
example code or algorith examples.

>
>In my case, all you accomplished was to make me suspicious. I'm sure
>that's not what you had intended.

Besides, Hans's solution makes harder to C programmers to use certain tools
on your code that work with the sources w/o calling the preprocessor, e. g.,
indent a C beutifier, in editors that are "C smart", your "begin end"
substitutes for "{" and "}" precludes the use of matching searches, etc.

>
>>A compiler is hard enough to understand as is. If EasyC makes that easier, why
>>not. If that is a reason for you to discard the package, I'll be happy to put
>>sed to work and give you a "true" C version. And of course, I'm always
>>interested in comments that can improve the quality of the package.
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cesar Scarpini Rabak                      E-mail: csrabak AT ipt DOT br
DME/ASC                                   Phone: 55-11-268-3522 Ext.350
IPT - Instituto de Pesquisas Tecnologicas Fax:   55-11-268-5996
Av. Prof. Almeida Prado, 532.  Sao Paulo - SP 05508-901 BRAZIL
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