archane-ness

[utzoo!decvax!ittvax!sii!mem]

c
This will probably rile a lot of people, but I'd like to express
my opinion that the whole formatted-ASCII-output implementation
(that is, all those percent signs and teco-esque things) are
out of place in a high level language.  The objection I have
is the same one that I have against using abbreviations in indirect
files and acronyms to excess in documents - saving a few
characters is simply not worthwhile except in an interactive
environment.

I know what you'll say (whoever you are):  printf, etc, is NOT
a part of the language.  But come on, its use is practically
religious.

Having said that, perhaps I should go and hide.  Hmm, on second
thought, I'm hiding already.

Mark E. Mallett