Re: TeX and Pascal [was Re: The joy of FORTRAN]

On 02/10/2024 01:06, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

On 2024-10-01, Peter Flass <peter_flass@yahoo.com> wrote:
 

That’s one of the things I dislike about C. It can obfuscate a simple
operation like that. Maybe in the days to 10CPS TTYs terseness had it’s
usefulness, but it’s been long since time when it’s been better to write a
bit more in the interest of readability.

 "My language is so readable that comments aren't necessary!"
 

And that is the rub. By the time you have commented the terse statement you might as well have written the longer self explanatory one...

And, of course, COBOL could never have been described as terse.
 

COBOL was something that could be taught to relative numpties. Grace designed it that way on purpose. Remember she was a military girl, and had to deal with matelots and other simian life.
And the COBOL programmer was expected to be given a spec saying 'for every employee, get his hours worked and multiply by his salary rate and put it in his pay packet'
--
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