Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanagnou+ng@hotmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: question about linker
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2024 11:59:45 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 71
Message-ID: <vis132$1ig7f$1@dont-email.me>
References: <vi54e9$3ie0o$1@dont-email.me>
 <87frnbt9jn.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> <viaqh0$nm7q$1@dont-email.me>
 <877c8nt255.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> <viasv4$nm7q$2@dont-email.me>
 <vibr1l$vvjf$1@dont-email.me> <vic73f$1205f$1@dont-email.me>
 <20241129142810.00007920@yahoo.com> <vicfra$13nl4$1@dont-email.me>
 <20241129161517.000010b8@yahoo.com> <vicque$15ium$2@dont-email.me>
 <vid110$16hte$1@dont-email.me> <vifcll$1q9rj$1@dont-email.me>
 <vifiib$1s07p$1@dont-email.me> <87ldwx10gv.fsf@bsb.me.uk>
 <vimtt4$27vv$1@dont-email.me> <vin7r2$49d1$2@dont-email.me>
 <vinalt$5qoh$1@dont-email.me> <vipgns$rjqn$1@dont-email.me>
 <viqbl8$12mum$1@dont-email.me> <viqfuh$131h8$2@dont-email.me>
 <87ttbj12ec.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com> <viqq95$164ug$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Injection-Date: Thu, 05 Dec 2024 11:59:47 +0100 (CET)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="70862cdfb091742525c46966a1b4c3e6";
	logging-data="1655023"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19PXfS2h+97XgntEe77/QMP"
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101
 Thunderbird/45.8.0
Cancel-Lock: sha1:58LI4J3IqW98kieVoJ8cQjYawkU=
X-Enigmail-Draft-Status: N1110
In-Reply-To: <viqq95$164ug$1@dont-email.me>
Bytes: 4183

On 05.12.2024 00:57, Bart wrote:
> On 04/12/2024 22:58, Keith Thompson wrote:
>> Bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
> 
>>> OK, if it's so simple, explain it to me.
>>
>> I'll pretend that was a sincere question.
> 
> Let's put it this way: if somebody asked me what the rule was, I
> wouldn't be able to tell them.

If that is true I suggest to read one or two textbooks.

But as you are actually a language designer I would suppose that
it should suffice if you look at the constructs and think about
them; about the syntactic options and requirements of separate
statements, their separation/termination, embraced blocks, and
empty statements. From anyone who implements a language (like
you did) I'd certainly expect to get that just by own thinking.

>> [...]
> 
> Consistency? I posted a bit of Algol68 the other day; each function
> definition needed a semicolon, to separate it from the next.

Why do you explicitly name functions here? - Semicolons are a
general (sequentializing) separator in Algol 68, and not really
different from other programming languages.

>> [...]
> 
> I'm aware of how messy and conistent it is. I've said that languages
> that use ";" as a separator probably fair better, [...]

(Oh, I thought you said you preferred terminators in languages.)

> [...]
> 
> My own made a compromise here: use ";" as separator,

(I know that from Awk, where I regularly use that feature.)

> but introduce some
> rules so that explicit ";" is rarely need. I think that wins.

Would that then be (like in Awk) that you then assume the line-end
as separator? (For a scripting language I think it's okay. YMMV.
But generally I would certainly consider that to be a Bad Idea.)

> 
> I said that my generated code has to use ":;" after each label; it looks
> weird.

It's funny that you put such an emphasis on labels. - Jumps to
labels have academically been long deprecated but, more importantly,
in my practical work I never had a need to use them (or even think
or considering to use them). (I suppose it's how one got socialized
to design and write programs.)

>> [...]
> [...]
> 
> Of course, if it was just me, then it would be pointless ranting. 'How
> hard is to add the semicolon?'
> 
> Well, 'How hard is it to delete the semicolon' from my above example?

You obviously have problems on a level that other folks don't have.

Janis