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000071_icon-group-sender _Tue Feb 23 13:59:56 1993.msg
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Received: by cheltenham.cs.arizona.edu; Fri, 26 Feb 1993 08:28:18 MST
Date: 23 Feb 93 13:59:56 GMT
From: cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!uwm.edu!rpi!usc!wupost!spool.mu.edu!yale.edu!ira.uka.de!gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!mcsun!uknet!edcastle!eddie@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Eddie Corns)
Organization: Edinburgh University
Subject: Re: Removing entab/detab from Icon
Message-Id: <32221@castle.ed.ac.uk>
References: <6854.9301282231@desktop.desktop.co.uk>, <31821@castle.ed.ac.uk>, <1m0enu$g4s@info2.rus.uni-stuttgart.de>
Sender: icon-group-request@cs.arizona.edu
To: icon-group@cs.arizona.edu
Status: R
Errors-To: icon-group-errors@cs.arizona.edu
zrzq0111@helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de (Frank Kirschner) writes:
>In article <31821@castle.ed.ac.uk> eddie@castle.ed.ac.uk (Eddie Corns) writes:
>>steve@dtc.co.uk (Steve Holden) writes:
>>Well, I was thinking more in terms of the end-user removing unwanted features.
>>For instance if I want to run a few icon programs on my little Amiga at home,
>>I would much prefer that uncommon features not reside in memory when not
>>actually in use.
>Try to port iconc to your amiga. Then the linker should throw away unused
>code of the libraries ...
Er yes, that's the whole point innit. Features inside the language aren't in
the libraries. Also, apart from the fact that it seems like quite a good
language (much better than C, that's for sure), I don't want a C compiler on
my Amiga anyway, almost as bad as having a virus on your disks :( (and
considerably more expensive), hence no porting for the foreseeable (*) future.
Don't know why I keep mentioning it really but don't you often feel that
people who create software (in general, I'm not actually referring to icon
here which is quite flexible) often limit what users can do just because they
don't approve (or can't be bothered etc.) But I don't suppose I'd get far if
I phoned the ANSI C committee and said "Look here, I want variable number of
arguments in my procedures, if you don't like 'em don't use 'em, no problem,
just fix it in the next release OK" (Yes, I know about varargs but that has
its limitations). Anyway, I've had my little rant, I promise I won't mention
it again (except under extreme provocation (or if you ask me to nicely)).
As an aside, perhaps the language would catch on more if there were some more
moderate sized tutorials explaining briefly _all_ the language features for
those who can already program. I certainly couldn't find any. If this has
already been thrashed to death I'm sure you'll all be civilised enough to
ignore it. Anyway, I suppose I'll just have to go order the book.
Eddie
(*) Yes, that's the way it's spelt even though it looks odd, had to look it up.