Any wheels that need to be redesigned?

Development
64

Getting back to some C and C++ bashing, a discussion was brought up by some language lawyers about always using structured code constructs instead of non-structured state machines. This brings up a problem when translating non-structured or semi-structured languages like BASIC.

In the following example, scope rules prevent C from creating equivalent syntax:

PROC Z(X,Y)
   IF X=Y
      LET N=1
      LET Y=0
   ELSE
      LET N=2
      LET X=X+1
   ENDIF
   PRINT N,X,Y
ENDPROC

The equivalent C code would normally be:

void z(int x,int y) {
   if (x==y) {
      int n;
      n=1;
      y=0;
   } else {
      int n;
      n=2;
      ++x;
   }
   printf("%d/t%d/t%d/n",n,x,y);
}

This example is a little contrived but in C, the variable n goes out of scope in both the if and the else so it won’t even compile. When translating from BASIC to C, those curly brace scoping rules become a major pain! There are 2 ways to solve it but both are ugly.

One is to define preprocessor macro magic in a header file written concurrently to the C file so any variable declaration is moved to just inside the curly brace after the function definition.

The other is to reinvent the structured programming commands themselves using a non-structured state machine. I’ve explained this position in my YAB2C++ thread. This didn’t appease the language lawyers.

I had to get this off my chest or I wouldn’t sleep tonight. I just had reread the linked thread. Good-night all!