> > I feel I can exercise a lot more control with a
> > computer programming language that uses instructions
> > that resemble natural language.
>
> This is your feeling, but not mine. I think a computer
> language that adds unnecessary symbols make it harder
> to understand what the code is doing. Properly formatted,
> languages with _less_ symbols are more clear. I like,
> for example, to compare C with Pascal.
>
> Alberto Monteiro
My impression is that C was designed for people who
could not type rapidly. I agree, once you really know the
syntax and all the commands, shorter is better. But one
has to get to that point somehow! For instance, we could
type English more rapidly if long words like 'impression'
were replaced with shorter strings like '#2367'. But one does
have to give some weight to the fact that the former is easier
to remember than the latter.
COBOL is crazy, since it uses English instead of the
common math symbols. But Pascal is about right. Having
easily deciphered command names soon pays for itself in
less debugging--that is for everyone who does not place a
high cost on typing a few extra characters.
---David
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