Times were very different when K&R were constructing a programming  
language and operating system from scratch.  If one doesn't like C,  
then don't use it.

David




On 2009-06-29, at 6:28 AM, olin_piclist@embedinc.com (Olin Lathrop)  
wrote:

> Marcel Birthelmer wrote:
>> You must realize that they probably knew what they were doing in
>> implementing it the way they did.
>
> No, I think they were a couple of hackers that had no programming  
> discipline
> and had disdain for languages that tried to enforce it.  I think we  
> all know
> a few people like that, or maybe even were like that back when we  
> first
> learned to write computer programs.  Most of us grow out of it.  K+R  
> didn't.
>
>> The above-linked Duff's Device is an
>> example of why the switch statement in C is useful the way it is.
>> Yes, it's a trap sometimes, and yes I've fallen into it, but I think
>> it's worth having it to make the language a worthwhile replacement
>> for hand-coding in assembler, which is what one might have to resort
>> to in order to achieve such a performance boost.
>
> There was no link above, and I didn't pay much attention to the first
> message about Duff's device.  Perhaps if you describe it breifly or  
> provide
> a example, I can see what the equivalent Pascal would look like and  
> whether
> a reasonable compiler would produce the same code as C would or not.
>
>
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