C's syntax (was Re: Python Formatted C Converter (PfCC))

[Grant Griffin]

Alex Martelli wrote:
> 
> "Grant Griffin" <not.this at seebelow.org> wrote in message
> news:39F5E620.C780A71C at seebelow.org...
>     [snip]
> > Sounds like you have the makings of a "Python Guru Available For
> > Contract Work". <wink>
> 
> I might become one, should I ever become unhappy with my current
> employer (or vice-versa:-).  Right now, the mission of bringing
> "3D to everyone, everywhere" keeps our mutual enthusiasm as high
> as it was over the last 12 years, so head-hunters need not apply.

(Sounds like you didn't read the "Python Guru Available for Contract
Work" thread. ;-)

> > Just for curiosity, could you be a little more specific here?  Sure, C
> > has its several known pitfalls.  But those aside, what's so bad about
> > it's syntax overall?
> 
> Apart from its various defects (quirks and flaws, as Dennis Ritchie,
> C's inventor, calls them), there's nothing much wrong with it.  (I
> have yet to meet anything that -- aparts from pitfalls, defects,
> quirks, flaws, etc -- has anything wrong with it... by definition
> of flaws, quirks, and so on).

(I think you forgot "QED" or something. ;-)

...
> > did Pascal ever need that bogus ":=" thing in the first place?
> > <<designed by a guy who didn't use it much>>
> 
> I don't know why you think that Backus "didn't use much" the
> assignment statement at the end of the '50s -- I think he
> switched to functional programming only a good while later.

I was thinking more of Nicholas Wirth, the inventor of Pascal (the
computer language, not the person. ;-)

Actually, I think Backus was the guy who played "Mr. Howell" on
"Gilligan's Island".

people-who-take-themselves-too-seriously-are-endless-fun-<wink>
   -ly y'rs,

=g2
-- 
_____________________________________________________________________

Grant R. Griffin                                       g2 at dspguru.com
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