🚀 go-pugleaf

tej@world.std.com wrote 22.03.96 on Re: Portability of code & skills (Beware of "C" Hackers etc):

> I don't remember enough Pascal to know what you mean.  I know you could
> define a function inside a function, making Pascal block-structured.
> C can't do that, but of course you can pass functions as arguments of
> functions.

The power of this mechanism is that the local function can access local  
variables of its surrounding function. E.g. in a list processing  
environment you could write

  function CountThem (l: List): integer;
  var Count: integer
    procedure CountOne (e: ListElement);
    begin
      if <some condition on e fulfilled> then begin
        Count := Count + 1;
      end;
    end;
  begin
    ApplyOnList (l, CountOne); (* !!!! *)
    CountThem := Count
  end;


> >No assertions
> I know it's dumb but what's wrong with assert() from assert.h?
Nothing wrong, but there are better frameworks. See programming-by- 
contract (e.g. in Bertrand Meyer, Object-Oriented Software Construction,  
Prentice Hall).

> >No opaque types
> a pointer to an empty struct declaration works fine.
The compiler cannot warn you if you inadvertently mix types.

> If you're going to compare Ada 95 to C '72, what's the point?
Agreed.


-Joachim

--
Im speaking for myself here.
## CrossPoint v3.1 ##