[TUHS] Re: The 'usage: ...' message. (Was: On Bloat...)

[John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>]

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On Mon, May 20, 2024 at 4:11 PM John Levine <johnl@taugh.com> wrote:

It appears that Clem Cole <clemc@ccc.com> said:
> >“The PL/C compiler had the unusual capability of never failing to compile
> >> any program, through the use of extensive automatic correction of many
> >> syntax errors and by converting any remaining syntax errors to output
> >> statements.”
> PL/C was a long time ago in the early 1970s. People used it on batch
> systems whre you handed in your cards at the window, waited a while,
> and later got your printout back. Or at advanced places, you could
> run the cards through the reader yourself, then wait until the batch
> ran.


PL/C was a 3rd-generation autocorrection programming language.  CORC was
the 1962 version and CUPL was the 1966 version (same date as DWIM), neither
of them based on PL/I.  There is an implementation of both at <
http://www.catb.org/~esr/cupl/>.

The Wikipedia DWIM article also points to Magit, the Emacs git client.

>
> In that environment, the benefit from possibly guessing an error
> correction right meant fewer trips to the card reader. In my youth I
> did a fair amount of programming that way in WATFOR/WATFIV and Algol W
> where we really tried to get the programs right since we wanted to
> finish up and go home.
>
> When I was using interactive systems where you could fix one bug and
> try again, over and over, it seemed like cheating.
>
> R's,
> John
>

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