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 autolearn=ham
	autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4
X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit
X-Google-Thread: 103376,1d321b3a6b8bcab2
X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public
X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1995-02-07 23:39:39 PST
Path: swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!porco
From: porco@biocon.Berkeley.EDU (Travis C. Porco)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: "Subtract C, add Ada"
Date: 8 Feb 1995 07:39:37 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Message-ID: <3h9sfp$ail@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: <3gsr0e$oin@miranda.gmrc.gecm.com> <1995Feb7.125826@hobbit>
NNTP-Posting-Host: biocon.berkeley.edu
Date: 1995-02-08T07:39:37+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


hathawa2@marshall.edu (Mark S. Hathaway) writes:

> Anyone can cram it into a smaller form if they like...

>   loop c := in.getch(); if c <> ' ' then exit; else
>     count.increment(1); end; end;

> but, that's hardly the point.

Oh no, terseness is the sine qua non of a programming
language.  Characters are very expensive and should never be
wasted.  I know of whole programming projects which have been
late due to a shortage of "a"'s.  When you add in the high
import tariffs on expensive letters from abroad, you see that
short terse syntax structures like that in C are clearly
superior.  

Further, studies of programmer productivity have shown that
slow typing speed is the single largest
obstacle to being a good programmer.  
Terse languages help the typistically impaired compete in the
dog-eat-dog world of programming.

Terse languages often have a beautiful mathematical
syntax which is very appealing and provides programmers a way
to display their talents.  For instance, 
while(++p = ++q) ;
is clearly impressive, whereas
copyString(destinationFileName,targetFileName) ;
is so obvious that anyone could have done it.
Similarly, cin>>a1>>a2; and  z+=3; demonstrate the programmer's
intellectual talents and good taste far better than the
pedestrian  get list(firstName, lastName) ; 
and   add 3 to expectedTime 

Computers are easily able to count things with
no error and to keep track of scoping rules, and a good
programmer naturally will try to emulate the machine in this
regard.  

"Whoever writes the function in the fewest characters wins!"

Travis | "Before there were friendly operating system interfaces
Porco  | like the [OS/2] Workplace Shell, computer users 
       | communicated with a computer using ... instructions 
       | called *commands*."  User's Guide to OS/2 Warp, p. 154