Byron Jeff wrote:
> I kind of like C's ability to use assignment as an expression.

Hmm.  I rather doubt there is any real efficiency gained from that by
reasonably written compilers.

> Again it
> does facilitate a compactness of expression that other languages do
> not have the ability to accomplish.

That may have been K&R's intent, and perhaps there was some limited reason
for it back then, but there is certainly little reason for it now.  Clarity
is far more important than compactness, and I think should have been back
then too.  I mostly care about compactness only as it enhances clarity.  Go
too far and it detracts from clarity.

> BTW you didn't even get to the one that just sticks in my craw:
>
> The default drop through action of cases in the switch statement.

Yeah, that's another good one.  I totally agree the default should be to en=
d
the switch, not fall thru to the next case.  The C SWITCH is just a compute=
d
GOTO, not a real selection of multiple cases as the syntax would lead a
casual observer to believe.  If they had named it MULTIJUMP or something, i=
t
wouldn't bother me so much, but then I'd still want a real multi-case
statement.

By the way, the Pascal CASE statement does work as you describe.  For
example:

  choice :=3D 1;
  case choice of
1:  writeln ('1 was picked');
3:  writeln ('2 was picked');
3:  writeln ('3 was picked');
otherwise
    writeln ('Other was picked');
    end;

would only result in "1 was picked" to be written.  You don't have to be a
Pascal whiz to have a pretty good idea what the above code does.

> The only argument that holds water is that since ranges are not
> allowed,
> the default fall through allows multiple cases to share the same code:
>
> choice =3D 1;
> switch (choice) {
>    case 1:
>    case 2:
>    case 3: printf("1,2, or 3 was picked\n");
>            break;
>    default: printf("other was picked\n");
>            break; // Unneccessary but often put in for consistency.
> }

Pascal gets around it this way:

  case choice of
1, 2, 3: writeln ('1, 2, or 3 was picked');
otherwise
    writeln ('Other was picked');
    end;

In other words, you can't put a bunch of cases in a row and fall thru, but
you can give each case multiple target values.  I think that addresses your
concern adequately enough.

> switch (choice) {
>    case 1: continue;
>    case 2: continue;
>    case 3: printf("1,2, or 3 was picked\n");
>            break;
>    default: printf("other was picked\n");
>            break; // Unneccessary but often put in for consistency.
> }

Something like that, although as Martin pointed out, CONTINUE already has
another meaning.  I would be fine with this if a different and new keyword
were used, like NEXTCASE for example.

> Byron A. Jeff
> Department Chair: IT/CS/CNET
> College of Information and Mathematical Sciences
> Clayton State University

Hey, when did that happen?  Congratulations!  Is that the same place you
were before, or did you have to go elsewhere to get promoted?  Last I
remember (probably a long time ago since my brain usually tunes out email
signatures) you were someplace in Georgia.


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