🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <BxxGKp.81A@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@pop.stat.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
>             For numerical programming, C, if it had multidimensional
>arrays...

What do you mean, ``if''?

And to answer some of the rest of your points about language flexibility:

* You've been offered macros, albeit with syntax not perfect but
  semantics OK.

* You've been offered escapes to asm.  I use a standard method of
  portable coding which allows me to have basic C implementations of
  non-portable things, with fast (asm if necessary) versions for
  machines with the required (h/w and/or OS) features.

* It has been pointed out that mucking with the language syntax is
  *not* generally a good idea as it often has unforseen consequences,
  but arbitrary syntax preprocessors are available if you want them.

* You complain about operator overloading or bad symbol choice.  What
  are we meant to use, raw TeX?  The symbols chosen for C, for example,
  were chosen to be in the limited chracter sets, and to be *short*.
  (Have you noticed how much less typing a C equivalent to a PASCAL
  program can involve?)  Less bloated script gives fewer typos and
  better productivity.  (I resent typing BEGIN and END in Pascal when
  we all know that { and } works in C!)  Consider then hamming-coded
  for typical CS apps of the time---your ops will be long and ugly
  sometimes.

I won't even complain about lamentable style in your examples.  B^>

I'm sure you are a well-respected worker in your field.  (You are
probably even twice my age B^>.)  You are right that the world should
not revolve around CS, but why the h*** should it revolve around *your
branch of maths* instead when most of the workers in the field are not
in *your branch of maths* (maybe not even in maths).  Why should the
syntax not all be lamba-calculus if it should be something else?

It *would seem* from your postings that you demand the
computing-language world should rotate about the same centre as your
not-insubstantial one, whatever you protest to the contrary.  That is a
narrow view if true.

HOWEVER, your views are interesting to me at least, so this is most
definitely a ``put up or shut up message'' even had I the right and
temerity to spout one.  B^>

[An answer to your email will follow, I only just got back from
 Minneapolis.]

Damon
-- 
Damon Hart-Davis                          Internet: dhd@exnet.co.uk, d@hd.org

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