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From: stephenb@harlequin.co.uk (Stephen J Bevan)
Subject: Re: OO, C++, and something much better!
Date: 1997/01/29
Message-ID: <STEPHENB.97Jan29142142@sorrol.harlqn.co.uk>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 213194398
references: <JSA.97Jan16141937@alexandria> <E44u82.6uB@syd.csa.com.au>
organization: Harlequin Ltd, Manchester, UK
newsgroups: 
 comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.lang.eiffel,comp.lang.ada,comp.object
Date: 1997-01-29T00:00:00+00:00
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>


In article <32EEC23E.4F1A@concentric.net> Alan Lovejoy <alovejoy@concentric.net> writes:
   Does Mercury use Algol-style function call syntax?  That is, 
   "f(x, y, z, ...)"? 

Which Algol do you mean here?  The last Algol 60 report I looked at
[algol60:bcs:cj:1976] contains the following example on page 373 :-

  PROCEDURE Spur(a) Order:(n) Result:(s); VALUE n
  ARRAY a; INTEGER n; REAL s;
    BEGIN INTEGER k;
     s := 0;
     FOR k := 1 STEP 1 UNTIL n DO s := s + a[k,k]
    END

(I've used capitals where boldface is used in the report) which you
can call as :- 

  Spur(a) Order:(7) Result:(V);

Granted you could also define it as :-

  PROCEDURE Spur(a, n, s); VALUE n
  ARRAY a; INTEGER n; REAL s;
    BEGIN INTEGER k;
     s := 0;
     FOR k := 1 STEP 1 UNTIL n DO s := s + a[k,k]
    END

and call it as :-

  Spur(a, 7, v);

Ada carries on this tradition of allowing both positional and named
parameters though with a different syntax to the above.


   If so, the fact that Smalltalk will have fewer cases of "wrong argument" due
   to its superior function call (message send) syntax is not a
   debatable point.  It's a fact.

Superior to what?


@article
{ algol60:bcs:cj:1976
, author=   "P. Naur and J. W. Backus and F. L. Bauer and J. Green and
C. Katz and J. McCarthy and A. J. Perlis and H. Rutishauser and K.
Samelson and B. Vauquois and J. H. Wegstein and J. H. {van
Wijngaarden} and M. Woodger and R. M. {De Morgan} and I. D. Hill and
B. A. Wichmann"
, title=    "Modified Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60"
, journal=  bcs:cj
, volume=   19
, number=   4
, pages=    "364--379"
, month=    nov
, year=     1976
, refs=     9
, checked=  19970119
, source=   "Computer Science Library, University of Manchester"
, reffrom=  Harland:poly:1984
}