> -----Original Message-----
> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On
> Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin
> Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 11:50 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: Quote on Slashdot.org
>
> On Mon, 30 Sep 2013 16:51:29 -0400, John Gilmore wrote:
>
> >Many C dialects do support long jumps as a language extension.
> >
> As a language extension, or via functions? (Some purists make a
> distinction. But it can't be done with functions without depending on
> out-of-band knowledge of the stack structure.)
>
> >They began in PL/I where they were/are called out-of-block GOTOs.
> >
> "began" only if you consider PL/I to antedate ALGOL 60, which I believe
> is contrary to history. (And ALGOL 60 allows such label objects to be
> passed as actual parameters; I don't know about PL/I.)
>
> >PL/I's used of contextually recognized instead of reserved words is a
> >high virtue. It is often caricatured as permitting constructs like
> >
> >declare file file record sequential buffered ;
> >
> And the worst compromise is Rexx, wherein such words are reserved with
> the bonus of added contextual sensitivity:
>
> ELSE = 'id' /* OK */
> ''ELSE /* OK */
> ELSE /* IRX0008I Error ...: Unexpected THEN or ELSE */
I think I disagree here. Your example seems to show a confusing language
idiosyncrasy but in practice I have never had any problems with it.
Rather I would say that the behavior is the least error prone - at least if you
don't have reserved words in the, e g, COBOL sense.
COBOL is really an example of bad usage of the idea of reserved words, we have
had several cases of the need to recode programs or area descriptions (COPYs)
due to a field name suddenly is not allowed because it is a new reserved word.
Best Regards
Thomas Berg
___________________________________________________________________
Thomas Berg Specialist zOS\RQM\IT Delivery SWEDBANK AB (Publ)
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