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From: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Dynamic typing (part 3)
Message-ID: <039AIL3@xds13.ferranti.com>
Reply-To: peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
References: <815@optima.cs.arizona.edu> <W+3AE38@xds13.ferranti.com> <20MAR91.08580313@uc780.umd.edu> <JT4AE6F@xds13.ferranti.com> <21MAR91.23594992@uc780.umd.edu> <IA6A5Q4@xds13.ferranti.com> <22MAR91.20485982@uc780.umd.edu>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 91 22:35:16 GMT

In article <22MAR91.20485982@uc780.umd.edu> cs450a03@uc780.umd.edu writes:
Orig-Paul> Generally, each assignment to a variable is unique.  (I try not to
Orig-Paul> re-assign, and when I do, I try and make sure re-executing that
Orig-Paul> section of code would not cause a problem).  Exception made for loop
Orig-Paul> counters, but not for other assignments made within the loop.

Peter>This is an unusual coding style, in my experience. Are you actually
Peter>limitin assignments, or are you hiding those assignments in call by
Peter>reference? Perhaps a code fragment would help.

Paul> It's not really that unusual...  especially when you consider that I
Paul> try but don't always succeed ;-)  A typical C ferinstance would be any
Paul> code where you initialize a table.  Other C examples include things
Paul> like |= or &= (after initializing with some neutral value).

OK, I still don't follow what the point is. Why avoid assignments, and how do
you do things like state machines or stepping through a list?

Paul> [refering to descriptive comments as type declarations]
Peter>But wouldn't it be nice if the language understood those declarations?

Paul> Then they'd be code.  

That's the point.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  `-_-'  peter@ferranti.com
+1 713 274 5180.  'U`  "Have you hugged your wolf today?"
