From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,FREEMAIL_FROM autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Received: by 10.50.114.197 with SMTP id ji5mr23713365igb.0.1381416496952; Thu, 10 Oct 2013 07:48:16 -0700 (PDT) X-Received: by 10.50.66.161 with SMTP id g1mr313198igt.5.1381416496750; Thu, 10 Oct 2013 07:48:16 -0700 (PDT) Path: border1.nntp.ams.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!feeder.erje.net!us.feeder.erje.net!news.glorb.com!i2no4464717qav.0!news-out.google.com!9ni24117qaf.0!nntp.google.com!a6no8531504qak.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 07:48:16 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=66.126.103.122; posting-account=RxNzCgoAAACA5KmgtFQuaU-WaH7rjnAO NNTP-Posting-Host: 66.126.103.122 References: <5249ab97$0$6625$9b4e6d93@newsspool2.arcor-online.net> User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <23baa71a-6293-452c-89de-16052a198d20@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Dereferencing and style guides From: Adam Beneschan Injection-Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 14:48:16 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Xref: number.nntp.dca.giganews.com comp.lang.ada:183607 Date: 2013-10-10T07:48:16-07:00 List-Id: On Thursday, October 10, 2013 12:35:31 AM UTC-7, Stefan...@uni-weimar.de wrote: > > I like the syntax of Pascal: If X is a pointer, then "X" denotes that > > pointer, "X^" denotes the object it points at (all of it!), and "X^.Y" > > denotes the Y component of the object X points at (again, all of that > > component!). And "X.Y" is illegal. > > > Since dereference is just one character, it's not painful to read. > > And it imparts useful information. > > Agreed! This is one of the few points where Ada really made things from > Pascal worse. I can imagine that Ada might have adopted the same syntax, if only those old keypunch machines had a ^ character on them. On the other hand, I'm not sure about the idea that "making things just one character" equates to readability. If that were true, APL would be the most readable language around. And C would be second. -- Adam