Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!husc6!mit-eddie!genrad!decvax!tektronix!cae780!gordon From: gordon@cae780.UUCP (Brian Gordon) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: C Review Message-ID: <3308@cae780.UUCP> Date: Wed, 14-Jan-87 11:42:02 EST Article-I.D.: cae780.3308 Posted: Wed Jan 14 11:42:02 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 15-Jan-87 05:05:44 EST References: <2313@brl-adm.ARPA> Reply-To: gordon@cae780.UUCP (Brian Gordon) Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 43 Sorry to post, by my mailer couldn't grok "To: Peter Steele - Acadia" ... In article <2313@brl-adm.ARPA> Peter Steele - Acadia writes: |I am currently finishing up a new text book on C with a colleague of mine and |we just received the last of several technical reviews. This particular |reviewer makes some statements that we find hard to accept. However, we're |just two people, so we decided to get some opinions from other C programmers. |Below is a list of some his statements. Is this guy for real? Your comments |would be greatly appreciated. Incidentally, the text is not an intro text, it |assumes the reader has finished a course in Pascal. | |"... 95% of all C programmers couldn't give you a good explanation of the |term lvalue..." I'd put it at 80%, but I believe it is HIGH in the non-academic world. |"... Switch/case could be classified as rarely used and should be kept till |later. I don't know where you put it, but is is a "lesser used" control structure. |"... very few C programmers know much about sizeof..." Hard to believe. Doesn't everyone HAVE to use it, eventually, when dealing with arrays and/or structures? |"... 99% of all professional C programmers have no idea what typedef is |all about, couldn't care less and probably won't ever need it." Maybe the reviewer has never seen a 100,000+ line system? Or feels that a book at this level is not applicable to that size effort? For a 200 line program, typedef is not NEEDED. |"... 99% of all professional C programmers have no idea what the comma |operator is all about, couldn't care less and probably won't ever need it." Too strong -- but out local coding standard SEVERELY restricts its use for fear that it is too hard for a casual maintainer to interpret. |"... Leave the comma operator altogether. An intro book is no place for |obscure and unmaintainable tricks..." The reviewer has the same worry about maintainability as the author(s) of our coding standard. On the other hand, why argue FOR incompleteness? |"... Pointers to functions ... few C programmers understand them or would |ever need them..." Again, maybe the reviewer has never seen -- or wishes to exclude -- 100,000+ line systems? |"... a C programmer never needs to know what a byte is..." Context dependent statement! Portable C code can be difficult when you make any assumption/requirement on machine characteristics ... FROM: Brian G. Gordon, CAE Systems Division of Tektronix, Inc. UUCP: tektronix!cae780!gordon [or gordon@cae780.CAE.TEK.COM]