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Date:Mon Apr 10 14:12:15 2000 
Subject:Re: List of Possible Poplog Projects 
From:pop 
Volume-ID:1000410.05 

>> (And the ability to
>> use a variable without declaring it is a DISadvantage, not an advantage.)

> Absolutely. As an undergraduate learning pop11, I switched this off as soon
> as I knew how. As a more experienced programmer, I'm, er, "surprised" that
> such a rich and fertile source of novice bugs is touted as a feature :-)))

In the mid 60's the idea of interactive computing was exciting. The notion
that you could just sit down at your teletype and tell the computer about
your problems had gained something of a grip upon us. If you typed

    E -> thing

we thought it great for the computer to say in effect "tell me more
about your 'thing'". In retrospect there's a great tendency for interactive
computing to rot the brain.  Robin.