SJS wrote:
Tracking down errors due to indentation errors is HARD.
Um, no, not really. Neither COBOL nor FORTRAN had indentation rules
complex enough to make debugging difficult. Certain columns were
reserved for certain information, is all. You had certain columns for
labels, certain columns for "this is a continued line" or "this whole
line is a comment", and certain columns for numbering the cards (which
the compiler would ignore).
Try putting "identification division" in the wrong column in a 300-line
COBOL program. It's really not difficult to figure out where the 700
error messages came from. ;-)
Seriously, who had problems with the fortran rule that code started in
column 8, and columns 1-6 were the label? Why is that worse than labels
in C that have to be followed by a colon?
That's why so
many languages did away with such rules.
No, they did away with it because people stopped using punched cards
that would get out of order if you dropped them on the floor, for example.
--
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
It's not feature creep if you put it
at the end and adjust the release date.
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
