Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!mcvax!ukc!eagle!icdoc!dcw From: dcw@doc.ic.ac.uk (Duncan C White) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Mesa is a dreadful language? Message-ID: <474@ivax.doc.ic.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 13-Jul-87 18:39:58 EDT Article-I.D.: ivax.474 Posted: Mon Jul 13 18:39:58 1987 Date-Received: Thu, 16-Jul-87 06:36:32 EDT References:<8268@utzoo.UUCP> Reply-To: dcw@doc.ic.ac.uk (Duncan C White) Organization: Dept. of Computing, Imperial College, London, UK. Lines: 31 In article <8268@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes: >> As for type safety... Would >> you have us go the C route, where loophole is unnecessary because >> everything is an int? > >How many years has it been since you used C? Modern C is fairly strongly >typed, and getting more so all the time. (Note that if you are using a >PCC-based compiler, you are working with an implementation that is nearly >ten years old.) (If it's the one in 4.3BSD, it's also seriously buggy.) >-- Good grief, Henry.... this is an extremely unhelpful attitude: "the PCC compiler [ie. the standard C compiler as distributed on BSD UNIX] isn't real C.. it's ten years out of date": what do you suggest all the BSD UNIX users DO about having a compiler that's ancient history ? Now I certainly agree that it would be very nice to have prototypes .. they are the single most useful change to the language ever.. Duncan. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- JANET address : dcw@uk.ac.ic.doc| Snail Mail : Duncan White, --------------------------------| Dept of Computing, This space intentionally | Imperial College, left blank...... | 180 Queen's Gate, (paradoxical excerpt from | South Kensington, IBM manuals) | London SW7 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tel: UK 01-589-5111 x 4982/4991 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------