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- Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
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- From: nagle@netcom.com (John Nagle)
- Subject: Re: New C++ type: boole
- Message-ID: <n2lm22_.nagle@netcom.com>
- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 18:11:18 GMT
- Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
- References: <DOUGM.92Jul26151240@titan.cs.rice.edu> <9220912.7004@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>
- Lines: 19
-
- fjh@munta.cs.mu.OZ.AU (Fergus James HENDERSON) writes:
- >>Programmers in Fortran have no conceptual
- >>problem with .TRUE.
-
- >.TRUE. is fine
-
- FORTRAN uses constructs like ".GT." and ".TRUE." because when John
- Backus was designing the language in 1954, nobody knew how to break up
- a line into lexical tokens, and there was much confusion over whether
- one could write "I=1" or had to write "I = 1". The solution chosen
- was to completely ignore spaces in FORTRAN statements. This resulted
- in some rather wierd syntax as the language was extended, because
- any syntax that could result in two words in sequence had to be
- parseable with no space or delimiter between the words. Hence,
- ".GT." and ".TRUE.", so that "I.GT.J" was parsable.
-
- But it's not a good rationale for using wierd syntax in a modern design.
-
- John Nagle
-