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- Path: herold.franken.de!jhd
- Date: 08 Jan 1996 19:35:00 +0100
- From: jhd@herold.franken.de (Joachim Durchholz)
- Newsgroups: comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.modula2,comp.lang.modula3,comp.lang.smalltalk
- Message-ID: <60SqRiBF3RB@herold.franken.de>
- References: <cmanDK7x13.5KM@netcom.com> <30e26364.2569895@news1.wolfe.net>
- <4bvae4$fl6@beatty.slip.netcom.com> <4c0a6d$4hs@news.irisa.fr>
- <4cnmqu$2fg@beatty.slip.netcom.com>
- Subject: Re: whither style
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-
- Jeez, there are so many points here I'd like to give my 2c worth of I
- can't resist.
-
- beatty@netcom.com wrote 07.01.96 on Re: whither style:
-
- > As to scope, surely if you're smart enough to use Eiffel you're not using
- > global variables, or at least not very many of them, or at least not without
- > some clear way to distinguish them. Actually, I'm a bit surprised that
- > Eiffel has global variables, but you brought them up.
-
- There is definitely no such thing as a global variable in Eiffel.
-
- > >close to its uses. And if your program unit is longer than a few
- > >tens of lines (which is poor style in e.g., Eiffel)...
- >
- > from printed listings. And yes, a good environment will show me a
- > variable's type just by clicking on it, but with HN I know the type just by
- > *looking* at it, and looking is even easier than clicking.
-
- Good code is so short you see the declaration at a glance. And if I'm
- discussing lengthy code in an environment where I don't have an
- environment that shows me the declaration, then I just include it with the
- code. True, HN has its use there, but rather as a means of abbreviation.
-
- > Were that to be done, this thread would die just when it is becoming more
- > interesting. The assertion has been made that language and technology
- > better solve the problem that HN attempts to address. I disagree because I
- > prefer three tools to two (and I'm not convinced that language is relevant
- > at all).
-
- I prefer one good tool to a dozen of inappropriate ones.
-
- I think HN is inappropriate for languages where you can change the
- representation of a type behind the scenes, simply because it's impossible
- to invent an abbreviation for every type that shows up in a project.
-
- In my experience, such languages actually don't need HN; the compiler will
- catch all errors that HN is supposed to help avoid. This is because in
- these languages, the type of a variable or value precisely defines what
- operations are admitted for it. If you had a type zero-terminated-string
- in such a language, the compiler won't allow you to pass this to a routine
- that expects a string with a length descriptor.
-
- For languages that have a more loose relation of types and routines,
- you need to have some fast way of checking wether an operation is
- applicable. HN makes that check easier, so it has a point there.
-
- -Joachim
-
- --
- Im speaking for myself here.
- ## CrossPoint v3.02 ##
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