why no ++?

[Peter Mayne]

"Anders Arnholm" <Anders at Arnholm.nu> wrote in message
news:slrn9ni35f.mpi.Anders at tika.arnholm.nu...
>
> In short, preprocessor macros are dangerous.

More precisely, C/C++ preprocessor macros are dangerous.

BLISS has two data types: value (which is an integer or an address,
depending on how you want to use it) and bitfield. All other data types
(structures, arrays (triangular, jagged, etc, with and without bounds
checking), and pretty much anything else you can think of) are all
implemented with a macro facility that is tightly integrated with the
language, and is very flexible and extremely useful.

While we're on the subject of punctuation, what's the historical reason for
the : at the end of a compound statement? Forgetting the : is still the
single most prevalent source of syntax errors for me.

I can see it being useful in

if condition: print "true"

but in multiple line blocks, why isn't it optional, much as the ; statement
separator is optional? (I'm not sure if it is a separator, because it is
allowed at the end of a line, but it'll do for now.)

PJDM
--
Peter Mayne
IBM GSA (but the opinions are mine)
Canberra, ACT, Australia
This post is covered by Sturgeon's Law.