From: Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com>
To: coff@tuhs.org
Subject: [COFF] Re: Of PL/I
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2024 16:44:30 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CABH=_VTHTpMcODWniitM0B=ZZo4UVO2SLM+stB95hq6wcVjjVA@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <mSPnrAvVcsHNW0uK0VN6G4delkn7bYVln9_R9N6aTaGyoPPAMNTTAz9JD7wjHoQAR-nOd0YkzSPhfJK__VkahSwrHO_xfVeiNu2TmO7cy_8=@protonmail.com>
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On Wed, Apr 3, 2024 at 1:30 PM segaloco via COFF <coff@tuhs.org> wrote:
> I get (friendly) flack for this from some of my coworkers, context is
> we're a C# and Java(Type)Script shop. They poke fun at how I write these
> languages like a C programmer but I don't ever hear anyone complaining
> about the readability of my code :)
>
> Someone once observed that a good Fortran programmer can write Fortran in
any programming language.
Here's another PL/I toxic language feature. Both COBOL and Fortran were
designed around the same time that Noam Conmsky was working out formal
language theory and both have ill-behaved grammars. Fortran has
context-dependent lexical analysis, for example. PL/I is better
behaved--the grammar for its lexical analysis is a regular grammar and can
be processed with a state machine. But unlike C and other more modern
languages, PL/I has no reserved keywords. So you can write things such as:
IF IF=THEN THEN THEN = ELSE;
Here the first IF and the second THEN are keywords. Everything else is a
variable name. Our PL/I shops forbade variable names that were the same as
language keywords.
I suppose the designers of the PL/I language wanted to allow for the
introduction of new language keywords while retaining backwards
compatibility with programs that may have used the new keyword sa a
variable name.
-Paul W.
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2024-04-03 20:44 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2024-04-02 15:06 [COFF] " Dave Horsfall
2024-04-02 16:40 ` [COFF] " Clem Cole
2024-04-02 17:01 ` Charles H Sauer (he/him)
2024-04-03 16:18 ` Paul Winalski
2024-04-03 17:30 ` segaloco via COFF
2024-04-03 20:44 ` Paul Winalski [this message]
2024-04-04 3:37 ` Wesley Parish
2024-04-04 15:40 ` Paul Winalski
2024-04-04 22:53 ` Peter Pentchev
2024-04-07 23:10 ` Dave Horsfall
2024-04-07 23:25 ` Charles H Sauer (he/him)
2024-04-09 21:41 ` Stuff Received
2024-04-10 0:50 ` [COFF] SNOBOL, ICEBOL, SPITBOL, et al William H. Mitchell
2024-04-10 1:42 ` [COFF] " Dave Horsfall
2024-04-08 1:13 ` [COFF] Re: Of PL/I Paul Winalski
2024-04-02 19:25 ` Stuff Received
2024-04-02 20:31 ` William H. Mitchell
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