Path: csiph.com!news.swapon.de!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Tim Rentsch
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Top 10 most common hard skills listed on resumes...
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2024 06:00:50 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 51
Message-ID: <86sett88l9.fsf@linuxsc.com>
References: <875xrivrg0.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <20240829191404.887@kylheku.com> <86cylqw2f8.fsf@linuxsc.com> <871q2568vl.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> <87cylo494u.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> <20240831195350.785@kylheku.com> <86mskrrvco.fsf@linuxsc.com> <86sety9yd6.fsf@linuxsc.com> <86frpxaml1.fsf@linuxsc.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Injection-Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2024 15:00:50 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="97ef20b65758fbd99b7a73cba003feee"; logging-data="1693884"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18ykcrm3N+A/Jc5Qal0aBsbJTV8DKHzo7U="
User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.4 (gnu/linux)
Cancel-Lock: sha1:JCPcV7J4Z26yKBTrXgSZd5HtOO4= sha1:2/SXAsesb7zvnLoHD26z4+bpjFg=
Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:388460
antispam@fricas.org writes:
> Tim Rentsch wrote:
>
>> Janis Papanagnou writes:
>>
>>> On 17.09.2024 15:57, Tim Rentsch wrote:
>>>
>>>> Janis Papanagnou writes:
>>>>
>>>>> On 01.09.2024 22:07, Tim Rentsch wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> [...] The most important purpose of
>>>>>> the ISO C standard is to be read and understood by ordinary C
>>>>>> developers, not just compiler writers. [...]
>>>>>
>>>>> Is that part of a preamble or rationale given in the C standard?
>>>>>
>>>>> That target audience would surely surprise me. Myself I've
>>>>> programmed in quite some programming languages and never read a
>>>>> standard document of the respective language, nor did I yet met
>>>>> any programmer who have done so. All programmer folks I know used
>>>>> text books to learn and look up things and specific documentation
>>>>> that comes with the compiler or interpreter products. (This is of
>>>>> course just a personal experience.)
>>>>>
>>>>> I've also worked a lot with standards documents in various areas
>>>>> (mainly ISO and ITU-T standards but also some others). [..]
>>>>
>>>> My comment is only about the C standard, not any other standards
>>>> documents.
>>>
>>> Yes, that was obvious.
>>>
>>> Are trying to say that the "C standard" is substantially different
>>> with respect to "readability" to other standards?
>>
>> To other language reference documents - yes.
>
> Compared to ISO 10206 (Extended Pascal) I find C standard much
> less readible. So there is difference, but in opposite direction
> than you suggest. Main thing is that C standard is written in
> "lawyerish" style, which is confusing to programmers. OTOH
> ISO 10206 is written in precise techincal style, which is
> easier. Of course, neither is a light reading.
I don't necessarily agree with all of your conclusions. In
any case I never claimed that the ISO C standard is the most
readable language reference document ever written. Even if
I were later to decide that the Extended Pascal standard is
better, that doesn't contradict anything I said above.