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Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: compil...@is-not-my.name
Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 11:02:27 -0000
Local: Sun, Jan 16 2011 6:02 am
Subject: Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like language
> However, if one has written an incorrect program, they might make I don't know if the source for it was ever made public, but PL/C, a > deciphering the error message harder and may prevent the error being > detected at the spot where it occurs. For example, consider the case > where someone doesn't realize that a specific keyword has a language > defined meaning at a particular spot and in the same spot an ordinary > user defined identifier is allowed. Then, in that place if the user > types what they think is their user defined identifier, but it happens > to be a reserved word in that context, something bad will happen. If > the user is lucky, the mistake will cause some kind of error because > the keyword will have additional syntax following it that the user > will not specify. In the unlucky case, the program will appear > correct, but silently do the wrong thing, possibly not detected until > it has caused some later catastrophic failure. variant of PL/I written at Cornell University would be a great case study on this topic. I'm sure many guys on the list are old enough to remember, but for The diagnostics ranged from helpful to hilarious. When it detected a syntax I don't know how much the thinking or logic behind it would lend > This is the same reason implicit declarations can be dangerous. I'm not sure I agree with this or else FORTRAN couldn't have been very successful. A lot of non-optimal things in life do seem to work. > Certain types of errors are easy to make and systems that make that Ada! > harder provide more protection, even if they penalize those who don't > make those errors. > [IF THEN = ELSE THEN IF = ELSE; ELSE IF = THEN; -John] Ha! When I get a chance I may try compiling that under PL/I...! [For more info about PL/C. see http://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/5952 I don't know if the code is still around, but it'd be easy enough to ask if anyone wants to run it on Hercules. With respect to the danger of implicit declarations in Fortran, there are plenty of stories of broken code due to statements like DO 10 I = 1.10 which is an assignment, not a loop. -John] You must Sign in before you can post messages.
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