Re: C standard question?

Flash Gordon wrote:
> Tom=EF=BF=BDs =EF=BF=BD h=EF=BF=BDilidhe wrote, On 10/05/08 18:55:
> > Jack Klein <jackkl...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> > > I would have a hard time believing that any people in the
> > > world other than you write the ridiculous "char unsigned".
>
> <snip insulting material>
>
> > If you're too mentally retarded to answer that question correctly
> > then you'll probably too imcompetent of a programmer to read
> > other people's code.
>
> It is not a question about whether people can understand it, it is a
> question about what they can understand fastest.

Which is probably why many successful programmers avoid C.
No matter who the author, even simple programs can look like
a dog's breakfeast compared to other languages. Just look at
the mixing of identifier styles in the standard library itself.

> The brain is a truly wonderful pattern matching system,
> and almost all C programmers brains are trained to match against
> the pattern "unsigned char" rather than "char unsigned".

A better word would be conditioned.

> So by going against convention you are forcing people to stop
> using the fast method of gaining the information and switch to a
> far slower method.

Which need not be as bad as it sounds.

I'm conditioned to recognise caucasian faces more easily than
oriental ones. But that says more about my conditioning than it
does about caucasions and orientals.

> When you have to review a few thousand lines of code
> written by someone else you will start to appreciate convention,
> and as the amount of code goes up you will appreciate it more
> and more.

On the contrary, its precisely this form of conditioning that
that is the bane of QA. The fast recognition you mention is
is used as tool of dismissal, not a tool of *****sment. It
becomes all too easy to overlook code simply because it
it fits the 'style'. C is is notorious for common mistakes that
go unrecognised and unre****ted.

> Oh, and if you want to discus C then insulting intelligent
> experienced and even expert C programmers is not the best
> way to go about it.

Learning to ignore intended insults _from_ the otherwise
intelligent experience and even expert C programmers
doesn't hurt either. ;-)

--
Peter