Re: Learning C and C++

[netnews!schonberg!dewar@nyu.edu (Robert Dewar)]

Of course I agree with Bob, the use of the C macro processor to distort the
syntax is a truly horrible practice. Indeed it is this kind of abuse of
macro processors that helped result in the rather draconian approach of
Steelman which required that Ada NOT have a macro processor.

When I talked of using Ada style in C, I was referring not to low level
syntactical stuff, where you are stuck (or blessed, depending on your
point of view, or perhaps whether you are a reader or writer) with the
C syntax, but rather to high level structuring approaches.

In particular, I think most C programming would benefit from a much more
disciplined view of header files, to elevate these to the same level of
importance, design and control as package specs in Ada. Of course in C one
has to depend on people's good behavior or the use of external tools where
in Ada the language provides the necessary control, but it's quite possible
to write C using the Ada package style.