Re: Brian Kernighan, maybe I'm not worthy, maybe I'm scum

On Dec 31, 5:26 pm, Richard Heathfield <r...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
spinoza1111 said:

On Dec 31, 12:46 am, Richard Heathfield <r...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>

Well, ASCII is of course 7 bits, so it isn't even a coincidence. But it

No, dear Richard, it is 8 bits.
It WAS 7 bits many years ago

ASCII is defined as a 7-bit code in ANSI X3.4-1986. If ANSI have changed
the definition of ASCII since 1986, they will have published the fact in a
revised Standard, in which case you will be able to cite that Standard.
Feel free to try.

Get real. It's a 7 bit code embed universally in 8 bits, and the fact
that it fits in 7 bits is an historical curio and trivia used today
strictly as a sort of put-down by loud, bearded lawn trolls in second
rate programming shops. This is because only lunatics fantasize that a
computer should have prime number word length. We tried it, and it
doesn't work.

when we
discovered that it's a bad mistake to make word size a prime number
and not a power of two.
And, C code using char * to represent strings is NOT PORTABLE,

Your confusion over C strings is well-documented. It is evident that this
confusion remains. For my counter-arguments, please consult the archives.
I'm not going to explain the blindingly obvious to you all over again,
when I've already done so at great length.

We're not going to consult the archives. You haven't once argued
coherently as to why your favorite (possibly only) language is
"really" portable right here in comp.programming which is where the
discussion can be conducted for all to see. Instead, you've engaged in
character assassination by citing sources which you know most people
will not consult, which is a Fascist strategy, as I said in 2003.

Look, mate. C isn't portable, because Brian Kernighan is an honest
man, and he says in a book published this year that Rob Pike's code is
C. But when I put this into the .Net development environment's C++
compiler, char * becomes sbyte and has to be converted byte by byte to
work with a test harness that uses the String. C is PART of C++, so
you are wrong in your claims that C is portable.

A language is portable when it can be ported, without a line by line
audit for conversions, for example to bit, which think they know the
length of the type.

Portable code can with great difficulty written in C, mostly by
violating the general rule, don't use macros because they suck.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT C IS PORTABLE. A portable language is one that
ports. One in which even code-that-sucks ports.

Java is portable. C# is portable as long as there is infrastructure
outside Microsoft.

Even old Basic for Babies was more portable than C will ever be. In
the 1970s, programs were shared successfully in the old Byte magazine
in Basic source form. Whereas to type in a C program (for example, the
code in Mathematical Methods in C) is always an adventure.

Even if the standard legislates legacy code away, what managers and
their programmers MEAN by C remains, and you as a tech author are
doing the industry a disservice by making claims that are passed along
as rumours.


--
Richard Heathfield <http://www.cpax.org.uk>
Email: -http://www. +rjh@
Google users: <http://www.cpax.org.uk/prg/writings/googly.php>
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999

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