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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: How idiot-proof must CPP be?
Message-ID: <4428@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 6-Oct-84 18:53:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4428
Posted: Sat Oct  6 18:53:08 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 6-Oct-84 18:53:08 EDT
References: <9225@watmath.UUCP> <522@wjh12.UUCP>, <9297@watmath.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 13

> What more justification do you need than a good use for it?

Basically, it should be useful enough, to enough people, to justify
forcing all C implementors to provide it.  It also shouldn't break
things, and it should be clean and simple enough that its prospective
customers can understand it.  Finally, it should be sufficiently well
understood (this normally implies substantial experience with one or
more experimental implementations) that its consequences and side
effects are known.  Implementing something just because it looks useful
is the way you get kitchen-sink systems like PL/I and OS/360.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry