Precedent for use of =

[rbj%icst-cmr at smoke.UUCP]

	The best way to some up the difference between C and Pascal, (I
	personnally see strengths and weeknesses in both) is that
	
	    C assumes the programmer knows what he is doing and lets him do it.
	Pascal assumes the programmer does not know what he is doing and
	prevents him.

Kind of like Georgia telling you what you can put in your mouth.
	
	Given this basic difference makes Pascal a better teaching language

Except that Pascal has such other bad features that make it unusable
and promote bad habits.

People, I don't see why you can't deal with subsets of a language.
If you took a first semester FORTRAN class (a rarity these days)
and taught it in C (no pointers, no double operators except ==
(you can even #define _EQ_ ==), no ?:, etc) you would be pretty
much teaching in FORTRAN. Hell, you can even lie a little bit:
"Arguments are passed by value, except for arrays. Tacking `&'
onto the front of a variable `makes an array out of it' (lie, lie).
To reference it you need to call it `variable[0]'".

After all, when they taught us FORTRAN, I didn't hear anyone
complaining about the dangers of the EQUIVALENCE statement.

When your pups get a little bigger, you can tell them what's
*really* going on. Kind of like reality.

But to subject them to the slangs and errors of outrageous fortran,
(I meant pascal, but Willie wrote it the other way :-) because
a few pop psychologists are afraid of seeing stars, is insane.

I saw throw `em in the water and let `em sink or swim.
	
	Eric Fanwick
	
	PS: Strong typed languages are for week minds.
	
Really! Eight days a weak.

	(Root Boy) Jim Cottrell		<rbj at icst-cmr.arpa>
Being a BALD HERO is almost as FESTIVE as a TATTOOED KNOCKWURST.