Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>>> Of course. The more redundant (that is, verbose) the syntax is, the
>>> easier it is both for the programmer to get something wrong and for
>>> the compiler to catch when something is wrong.
>>
>> Not necessarily, and this is one of the problems with C.
>
> What "not necessarily"? Sometimes, it seems you don't really try to
> understand and go against, just because... :)

I was disagreeing with the part that it's easier for the programmer to get a
verbose syntax wrong, as I illustrated with a actual case.

>> It is easier to get "{" or "}" wrong than the more verbose "begin" or
>> "end", for example.
>
> I think here you're wrong. The probability to type a wrong letter is
> about the same per letter, so the probability to type "begin" wrong is
> higher than the probability to type "{" wrong.

It doesn't work that way.  The probability of typing different letters wrong
are not the same, with special characters being much higher, at least in my
experience.  Anything that requires SHIFT or other control keys is more
error prone.

If you type something a lot, your brain will develop a sortof "macro" for
it.  You no longer conciously type the individual letters, but think of the
whole word.  The probability of getting these keywords wrong is much less
than a new word made of arbitrary letters.  Think of typing "the".  You just
think "the", not t-h-e, and your brain automatically produces the right
keystrokes and very very rarely gets them wrong.

Then there is some sort of checking done in your brain when typing.  I know
it sounds unintuitive, but it seems there is a process that detects mistypes
that is separate from creating the key actions in the first place.  I can't
explain it better, but I think anyone that touch types knows what I mean.  I
can be typing something by looking at the original and not the screen.  When
I make a mistake I somehow know it, even though the same brain made the
mistake in the first place.


********************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, http://www.embedinc.com/products
(978) 742-9014.  Gold level PIC consultants since 2000.
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist