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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Readabilty of "3 == x" (was: My C program does not compile or gives segmentation fault)
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2017 09:20:50 -0700
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ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) writes:
[...]
>   In my teaching, I sometimes observe that participants oppose
>   if heads such as
>
> if( x )
>
>   . This seems to be so because in English (in my courses,
>   actually, "in German") one cannot just say "if x,", but has
>   to say "if x is not equivalent to zero," or some such. So,
>   they expect that the rules that govern the English language
>   also should apply to C.

That depends on what x is.  If a name is used as a condition,
it should probably be a name that makes sense as a condition.
I probably wouldn't literally write
    if (x)
but I might write
    if (done)
or
    if (job_is_completed)
which reads naturally as an English-like phrase.  I certainly 
wouldn't read `if (done)` as `if done is not equal to zero`.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"