Re: Language design question

"Dr A. N. Walker" <Andrew.Walker@nottingham.ac.uk>
27 Feb 2000 02:39:50 -0500

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[3 earlier articles]
Re: Language design question flisakow@ricotta.cs.wisc.edu (2000-02-15)
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Re: Language design question thp@roam-thp2.cs.ucr.edu (Tom Payne) (2000-02-19)
Re: Language design question Andrew.Walker@nottingham.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker) (2000-02-27)
Re: Language design question hannah@mamba.pond.sub.org (2000-03-21)
Re: Language design question frederic_guerin@yahoo.com (Frederic) (2000-03-25)
Re: Language design question world!bobduff@uunet.uu.net (Robert A Duff) (2000-03-25)
| List of all articles for this month |
From: "Dr A. N. Walker" <Andrew.Walker@nottingham.ac.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 27 Feb 2000 02:39:50 -0500
Organization: School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK.
References: 00-02-065 00-02-066
Keywords: design, types, comment

Chris F Clark quotes:
> Algol 68 make pointer coercions automatic. Reading an Algol 68
> program is like trying to insert the necessary dereferences without
> any hints.


There is an element of truth in this. *Some* Algol coercions
are quite well hidden, and certainly it's very difficult to read Algol
programs unless you know what all the identifiers mean. On the other
hand, does anyone really want to write an explicit dereference every
time they use a variable?


Almost every language out there manages to smudge the
distinction between [for example] a number and a variable that happens
to contain that number. Once you've done that, there is no proper
line to draw between implicit dereferencing of variables that happen
to contain numbers and those that happen to contain pointers, or
pointers to pointers, or pointers to arrays of pointers to functions,
or whatever.
--
Andy Walker, School of MathSci., Univ. of Nott'm, UK.
anw@maths.nott.ac.uk
[Does anyone still use Bliss? It really did require explicit deferencing
everywhere. What a pain in the neck. -John]

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