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Re: repeating something n times

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"Stefan Ram" <ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de> wrote in message
news:repeat-20120705210751@ram.dialup.fu-berlin.de...
>  It is funny how many languages fail to give a means to
>  repeat something n times.
>
>  In Logo, one can write:
>
> repeat 4

>  to repeat something 4 times, but in C one needs

Some languages just don't seem to like syntax! Any syntax of mine *always*
has a construction for infinite loops, followed by one for N-times loops,
even before there are indexed for-loops and while, repeat and so on. They
are just fundamental. However, C-derived syntaxes rarely seem to add
anything to the basic loop form from four decades ago.

do
 body...
end

to 4 do
  body...
end

> for( int i = 0; i < 3; ++i )
>
>  , where the need to introduce a variable in the source code
>  seems redundant in this case and more troublesome and error-prone.

C is a good example where they seem to like redundancy (so you have to write
the loop-index 3 times even though it's never used).

When this is put to the C guys, they might say, Oh the compiler will reduce
it down to the minimum looping instructions needed if the 'i' index is not
used. (But then, this is the contrary to the usual way a compiler works, ie.
expressing exactly what is wanted then the compiler fills in whatever
complicated code is needed. In C, the programmer writes things out the long
way, and the compiler simplifies it!)

Or, they will come up with some dodgy macro to expand such as REPEAT() to
achieve the same. Or perhaps a while-loop can be used too. So there are a
number of excuses why they shouldn't add such a feature to the language.
Probably there are similar arguments for others. Certainly, any language
*will* allow you to repeat something four times, in some way or another, so
it's not seen as a pressing issue.

-- 
Bartc 

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Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-06 21:56 +0100
  Re: repeating something n times Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-07-06 22:16 +0100
    Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-06 23:18 +0100
  Re: repeating something n times malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-07-14 14:11 -0700
    Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-14 23:11 +0100
      Re: repeating something n times Ike Naar <ike@iceland.freeshell.org> - 2012-07-14 23:37 +0000
        Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-15 01:16 +0100
          Re: repeating something n times malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-07-14 17:35 -0700
            Re: repeating something n times Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2012-07-14 22:23 -0500
          Re: repeating something n times Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2012-07-14 22:19 -0500
            Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-15 11:00 +0100
      Re: repeating something n times malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-07-14 17:44 -0700
      Re: repeating something n times Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2012-07-14 22:17 -0500
        Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-15 11:49 +0100
          Re: repeating something n times Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2012-07-15 09:53 -0500
      Re: repeating something n times Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 12:18 +0100
        Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-15 13:21 +0100
          Re: repeating something n times Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> - 2012-07-15 13:02 +0000
            Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-15 14:36 +0100
              Re: repeating something n times Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> - 2012-07-15 14:18 +0000
                Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-15 15:45 +0100
                Re: repeating something n times Willem <willem@toad.stack.nl> - 2012-07-15 16:25 +0000
                Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-15 18:02 +0100
          Re: repeating something n times Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-07-15 15:10 +0100
            Re: repeating something n times "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-07-15 16:10 +0100
              Re: repeating something n times malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-07-15 13:00 -0700
    Re: repeating something n times Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2012-07-14 21:55 -0500
      Re: repeating something n times "io_x" <a@b.c.invalid> - 2012-07-17 20:47 +0200
        Re: repeating something n times "io_x" <a@b.c.invalid> - 2012-07-18 14:19 +0200
          Re: repeating something n times Aaron W. Hsu <arcfide@sacrideo.us> - 2012-07-18 12:55 -0500
            Re: repeating something n times malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com - 2012-07-18 11:57 -0700

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