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Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support

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From	Martin Ward <martin@gkc.org.uk>
Newsgroups	comp.compilers
Subject	Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support
Date	Tue, 10 Apr 2018 16:11:29 +0100
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On 08/04/18 14:21, Derek M. Jones wrote:
>> Modern popular languages are neither powerful nor easy to learn.
>
> What evidence do you have for this?

The C standard is over 700 pages: not exactly an easy read.  C has 199
different cases of undefined behaviour that the programmer has to
memorise and avoid using if they want to write conformant and
compatible code.

C++ is even more popular than C but adds layers more complexity
on top of the complexity of C: "If you think C++ is not overly
complicated, just what is a protected abstract virtual base pure
virtual private destructor, and when was the last time you needed one?"
(Tom Cargill, C++ Journal, Fall 1990).

An iostream-based "hello, world" program requires the GNU C++ compiler
to parse 718K bytes.

See also: http://yosefk.com/c++fqa/defective.html

Yet, for all that complexity, "C combines the power of assembly language
with the flexibility of assembley language"!  To do anything useful
in C or C++ one needs to use large numbers of functions from
various libraries. The GNU C library, which contains basic low-level
functions such as string handling, I/O, memory allocation etc,
has a manual which is 1,174 pages long.

On the other hand, the Revised^4 Report on the Algorithmic Language
Scheme ("Dedicated to the Memory of ALGOL 60") is only a 55 page manual
but it includes the full syntax and semantics of the language.

--
			Martin

Dr Martin Ward | Email: martin@gkc.org.uk | http://www.gkc.org.uk
G.K.Chesterton site: http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc | Erdos number: 4

[In fairness, a lot of the 700 pages of the C standard are about
the library.  In my copy of C99, pages 9-163 are about the
language, pages 164-401 are about the library, and then there's
about 150 pages of appendices.  But it's certainly a lot bigger
than the language that K&R wrote about in the 1970s. -John]

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Thread

Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support Martin Ward <martin@gkc.org.uk> - 2018-04-10 16:11 +0100
  Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support "Derek M. Jones" <derek@_NOSPAM_knosof.co.uk> - 2018-04-10 16:56 +0100
  Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at (Anton Ertl) - 2018-04-10 16:04 +0000
    Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support "Derek M. Jones" <derek@_NOSPAM_knosof.co.uk> - 2018-04-10 23:14 +0100
      Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support Martin Ward <martin@gkc.org.uk> - 2018-04-13 13:55 +0100
  Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net> - 2018-04-10 11:04 -0700
  Re: language design after Algol 60, was Add nested-function support Kaz Kylheku <157-073-9834@kylheku.com> - 2018-04-10 18:38 +0000

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