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Date:Mon Jul 5 21:33:18 1994 
Subject:Why I hate C, Like Dylan 
From: Robin Popplestone  
Volume-ID:940706.02 

Steve McIntosh gleep@netcom.com (Net Bopper) writes in
<gleepCsAvMA.6H@netcom.com>

> The main problem with the C language is that almost every typo you can
> make is legal and compiles.

Well this is one - the difficulty of a sensible garbage collector is
another.

> My most current bitch about C and C++ is that it's a kludge.

I don't see C as a kludge - merely as a fairly slender language quite
elegantly designed for its time. Some mistakes were certainly made in
carrying succinctness too far, particularly using "=" for assignment in a
way that can be legally substituted for equality. C++ on the other hand
is a superstructure erected on the hull of C that is really just too big,
and which is prevented from offering the security of an advanced language
because of the loopholes in C.

> Isn't case-sensitive? GREAT!!

Well here I prime up my flame-gun. The great problem with LISP is that,
having been conceived in a reasonable effort at mathematical rigour, it has
been led down various garden paths by generations of hackers. Now
lack of case-sensitivity may be merely a matter of style, but it does point
to a departure from mathematical practice - mathematicians are always keen
to use as many fonts as they can get their paws upon, and regard it as
sinful to throw away half of the only one that (even now) commonly
available for program composition. So I go along with the main stream
of functional language designers who have opted for case-sensitivity.

Robin.