Re: Loops (was Re: do { quit; } else { })

Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> writes:

On Tue, 15 Apr 2025 11:30:24 +0100
bart <bc@freeuk.com> wrote:
>

Let me ask you this:  what exactly is the point of the 'while'
statement in C?  Since it can always be trivially be written as:
>
    for (;cond;)
>
It seems to that most use cases (initialise, check exit condition,
change something that affects the letter), would suit 'for' better.
>
But since 'for' then becomes overloaded, there ought to be a
dedicated feature for simple iteration.  So it seems the solution is
as a I suggested above.

>
I suspect that 'while' loop is here in C because Dennis Ritchie wanted
'do .. while() ' and thought that if the keyword is here anyway than
why not reuse it?

According to K&R, all of the basic control structures in C -- if,
while, for, do, and switch (and listed in that order) -- were
provided in BCPL, though not using the same syntax as in C,.

In the hindsight, probably a mistake.

I admit I don't understand this reaction.