Conference turris::languages

359.0. "Apparent nonC contest conference" by FIGS::PRAETORIUS (mwlwwlw&twwlt) Thu Sep 16 1993 12:32

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                     -< Apparent nonC contest conference >-
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Note 1.0                      I wish I'd said that                       1 reply
FIGS::PRAETORIUS "mwlwwlw&twwlt"                     34 lines  15-SEP-1993 18:00
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     At first I thought I'd explain this by saying it was the opposite
of the Obscure C contest.  But if I negate only one term, I get Apparent
C, and that's not what I want (neither is Obscure nonC).  Does this count
for litotes, Mr. Mogliazzi (sp?)?

     What I want is really obvious looking code (if you can do that in
C, more power to you).  Plusses are:

	reads almost like English language pseudocode, but compiles

	declarative style (single assignment style counts for a
	close 2nd)

	scarcity of syntactic sugar

	elegance, terseness, brilliance, etc.

	an obvious statement of a problem that you previously
	thought would always look ugly

	(last on the list, but still nice) efficiency

I'm tempted to say TECO (as much as I love it), FP and APL (and their ilk)
are right out - I'd love to be proved wrong.  I'd like to allow, say,
Common Lisp (I think it usually has well chosen function names and, when
not dealing with arithmetic, the forward Polish style isn't too unfamiliar),
but I may get shouted down on that.

     I'm not quite sure how to organize the file.  For now, I'll just
post the 2 examples that inspired this notesfile as base notes (leaving
room for discussion (and eventually maybe voting?) after each).  If you
have a nomination, please post it as a base note for now.  Any suggestions
on organization would be appreciated.
								Robt. P.