Re: Examples in Docs, was Re: Escape Sequences in Strings

[mark_lundquist@my-deja.com]

In article <940n0u$tnf$1@nnrp1.deja.com>,
  Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-deja.com> wrote:

>
> I am not sure there is really any specific connection
> between examples in documents and comments in code.

Not a connection, an analogy.  With respect to the function of a
program, comments are superfluous; with respect to the language
definition, examples are superfluous.  But of course the purpose of a
program and the purpose of a language definition are not the same :-)

>
> Going back to my original comment, I again stress that
> I perfectly well understand that my taste is not typical
> here. I doubt there are many people who learned COBOL
> from the ANSI standard (as I did :-)

You're probably right, not many... :-)

Wanting examples in the RM is absurd because it's to say "I want to
learn the language from the definition", then to turn around and say "I
don't like this standard, it doesn't have enough examples for me to
learn the language from"!  You want to learn it from the LRM, fair
enough, but then you have take it on its own terms, i.e. a definition
w/o the redundant bloat of examples!

> [...] Actually there are
> few programmers who really thoroughly know the semantics
> of the language they are using.
>

To digress... :-)

Although I've used C++, I don't really know it, and my study of it
impressed me that to really understand C++ requires more intelligence
than I'm possessed of -- or at least, more brain cells than I could
spare to devote to the task.  It seems like in order to do even
fundamental things reasonably well in C++, you have to wrap your brain
around all kinds of deep and intertwined details about the meanings of
references, const, temporaries, construction and destruction in
general, copy constructors in particular, etc., etc.  Maybe it's just
me and I have yet to get "closure" on it in a way that all those
details can stay with me.  Maybe Ada's the same way and I'm just no
longer aware of it.  Maybe the vast ocean of C++ programmers really
*are* that much smarter than me...



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