Re: [9fans] A new language for Plan 9

[Pietro Gagliardi <pietro10@mac.com>]

On May 1, 2008, at 10:21 PM, Pietro Gagliardi wrote:

>
> On May 1, 2008, at 9:26 PM, erik quanstrom wrote:
>
>>> one does
>>>
>>> 	if key = 'c' then
>>> 			scanline
>>> 			runcommand
>>> 		else
>>> 			generate(key)
>>> 			assemble(key)
>>>
>>> This is similar to Python, and prevents the nesting ambiguity of C,
>>> Pascal, and some other languages that use block delimiters.
>>
>> don't forget fortran.
>>
> [off topic] I wonder why it took 20 or so years for Fortran to
> introduce IF..ELSE..END IF. Probably after Kernighan and Plauger,
> 1974, it finally came to Backus' senses. :-P
>
Also, the decision not to include goto satisfies some of the elements
they describe, as well as being deliberate. There are good languages
that lack gotos completely and yet you can write programs in it. Take
Java as a perfect example - it reserves goto but doesn't use it. Java
has been used for production-class and enterprise-class applications
(J2EE stands for Java 2 Enterprise Edition, after all). In Bentley you
can say

	goto := 4