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From: aho450s@nic.smsu.edu (OBryan Anthony H)
Subject: Re: Ada is 'better' than C because...
Date: 1996/08/12
Message-ID: <4un7j3$m9g@ursa.smsu.edu>#1/1
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references: <01bb7bf9$b89a1740$96ee6fcf@timhome2>
 <g1u3udtrxs.fsf@hotspec.lanl.gov>
followup-to: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c
organization: Southwest Missouri State University
newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.lang.c
Date: 1996-08-12T00:00:00+00:00
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William Clodius (clodius@hotspec.lanl.gov) wrote:

: Not quite. First when passed as an argument to a user defined function
: a C array looses a lot of its distinction from a pointer, a problem
: that many other languages do not have. Second, while (almost?) all

  I have a hard time seeing this as a problem.  It's one of the fantastic 
advantages of the C language.  An array of any given type can be passed 
to a user function and treated as an array of any other integral type, 
converted, processed, etc. in any manner the programmer desires.

: additional capabilities that C arrays lack, the ability to specify
: array shape in arguments (Fortran I), and various forms of whole array
: operations, APL, PL/I, Algol 68, and Fortran 90.

What do you mean by array shape?  C is fully capable of performing whole 
array operations.  The capability is not embedded in the language, as C 
is designed to provide only the bare necessicities for program 
development with all else being provided in function extensions, but the 
language itself allows for anything a machine is capable of doing.