A Modest Proposal

[Dan Tilque]

It seems to me that several of the recent changes (parens honored, for
example) to the proposed standard are for the benefit of numerical programmers
and/or vector processors.  Most of the opposition seems to be coming from
systems programmers.  The systems people generally say: these are unnecessary;
if you want them, use FORTRAN.  The numerical programmers' answer is that C
produces much better code than FORTRAN.  (Or, in the case of noalias,
neither C nor FORTRAN has it but it's still not needed for most systems
work.)

My proposal is that we create a new language (perhaps called Cnum) in which
to put these type of features in.  As the name implies, Cnum would be C
oriented to numerical processing.  It would be upwardly compatable (more
or less) from K&R C.  It could also have an exponentiation operator and any
other features from FORTRAN which are deemed useful.  Then, when any of these
kinds of features are proposed in the future, we can all say: "Use Cnum".

It would probably be best to remove floats and doubles from C to further
emphasize the different uses of the two languages.  

Any comments?  Has this been done or proposed before?


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Dan Tilque

This is a borrowed account, so be sure to indicate that replies are for me 
and not for Rob.