Lies in education [was Re: The "loop and a half"]

[Grant Edwards]

On 2017-10-11, bartc <bc at freeuk.com> wrote:
> On 11/10/2017 15:36, Chris Angelico wrote:
>> On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 1:14 AM, bartc <bc at freeuk.com> wrote:
>>> Python, maybe. C syntax isn't as painful as C++ but I still have a lot of
>>> trouble with it. (Eg. the variable declaration 'char(*(*x[3])())[5]'. The
>>> name of the variable can be found lurking in that lot somewhere, but what's
>>> the type?) Not so convenient.
>> 
>> People love showcasing stupid examples like that. But how often do you
>> REALLY make declarations that complex? That's not technically
>> strawmanning, since C syntax does indeed include that, but you're
>> cherry-picking the most extreme example.
>
> Sure. Statistically most declarations are going to be things like 'int' 
> or 'char*. But more complicated ones (usually not as bad as the 
> example), crop up often enough to be a nuisance.

The easiest way to make stuff like that readable is to unroll them
into a sequence of typedefs.  But, a lot of people never really
learn how to do that...

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Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! ... I don't like FRANK
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