Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mmintl.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Re: C programming style Message-ID: <480@mmintl.UUCP> Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 13:46:01 EDT Article-I.D.: mmintl.480 Posted: Fri Jul 12 13:46:01 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 15-Jul-85 00:40:01 EDT References: <11434@brl-tgr.ARPA> Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT Lines: 27 Summary: In article <11434@brl-tgr.ARPA> DHowell.ES@Xerox.ARPA writes: >Let me start out by saying that while I am not an experienced C >programmer, I am an experienced programmer. These replies are based on >my limited knowledge of C, but I believe they are applicable to all >programming languages in one way or another. I am an experienced programmer. I have been writing C for about four months now. >Maybe "i++" is clearer to you, but do you only write programs for >yourself? To me "i++" is the kind of statement typical of an APL-type >language, not a language that is supposed to be structured and easy to >understand. "i++" could mean something else in another language. But >almost all high level languages (even APL) use some form of "i = i + 1" >to increment a variable. If I want to distinguish between incrementing >and adding, then I would define a procedure such as "increment(i)", >which can be immediately understood. I agree that "i++" is an abomination. (I do use it, however, to be consistent with the rest of the code I work with.) Actually, C has a third way to represent this operation: "i += 1". Personally, I think this is the superior notation. It is concise, yet easy enough for a person unfamiliar with the language to interpret. Incidently, "i = i + 1" is not all that obvious, either. Many people's response, on seeing such an expression for the first time, is "impossible. 'i' can't equal 'i + 1'.".