Path: csiph.com!weretis.net!feeder6.news.weretis.net!news.misty.com!news.iecc.com!.POSTED.news.iecc.com!nerds-end From: Hans-Peter Diettrich Newsgroups: comp.compilers Subject: Re: What attributes of a programming language simplify its use? Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2022 22:16:44 +0100 Organization: Compilers Central Sender: news@iecc.com Approved: comp.compilers@iecc.com Message-ID: <22-12-004@comp.compilers> References: <22-12-001@comp.compilers> <22-12-003@comp.compilers> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: gal.iecc.com; posting-host="news.iecc.com:2001:470:1f07:1126:0:676f:7373:6970"; logging-data="30373"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@iecc.com" Keywords: syntax, design Posted-Date: 03 Dec 2022 17:52:14 EST X-submission-address: compilers@iecc.com X-moderator-address: compilers-request@iecc.com X-FAQ-and-archives: http://compilers.iecc.com In-Reply-To: <22-12-003@comp.compilers> Xref: csiph.com comp.compilers:3251 On 12/3/22 11:25 AM, Thomas Koenig wrote: > gah4 schrieb: >> One feature that I find makes them easier to use, and harder to >> implement, is no reserved words. > > I think this is more a matter of extensibility than of ease of use, > but both are somewhat intertwined. > > Adding a new reserved word is a breaking change, especially if that > word is often used. See "new" in C++, which was something reasonable > to use in C, and is reserved in C++. IMO C basic syntax is a bad base. As long as declarations and expressions can be distinguished only by the type of an identifier (type name or variable name) it's not a good idea to add new keywords that can be confused with variable or type names. Instead weird constructs like "long long" for int64_t have been introduced, while "int int" stays equivalent to "int". DoDi