Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 SMI; site sun.uucp Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!decwrl!sun!guy From: guy@sun.uucp (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: more questions about efficient C code Message-ID: <2413@sun.uucp> Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 02:44:20 EDT Article-I.D.: sun.2413 Posted: Fri Jul 12 02:44:20 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 12:15:26 EDT References: <11435@brl-tgr.ARPA> Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Lines: 20 > I personally think that programming is a tool for all and not a science > for a few. It is simply a matter of making it understandable to all > who are involved with a project, programmers and non-programmers alike. How inclusive is your "all"? It's silly to expect everybody to understand all that's involved in programming. Should all automobiles be constructed using technology understandable by "all"? No. Most people don't have the background to understand how a catalytic converter works, or example. It's sufficient to construct automobiles so they're *usable* by all. The same is true of software. Software should be usable by the widest possible collection of people, but the person constructing the program shouldn't care whether the person using it could understand the code when presented to them. The C programming language is a tool. A person using a tool is assumed to have some minimum amount of knowledge about the tool they're using. I think the "if ((stream = fopen(filename, mode)) == NULL)" idiom, or the "a++" idiom, is in that minimum. Sneaky code like "a = (b = c) + d" is not. Guy Harris