To: bpr@best.com
Subject: Re: How do I ..
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 20 Dec 1999 12:16:43 -0800 (PST)"
<Pine.BSF.4.21.9912201150040.15835-100000@shell5.ba.best.com>
Message-Id: <19991221183930G.garrigue@pauillac.inria.fr>
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 18:39:30 +0100
From: Jacques Garrigue <Jacques.Garrigue@inria.fr>
From: Brian Rogoff <bpr@best.com>
> > As to the existence of two modes, I expect it to stay around for a bit
> > longer.
> >
> > Clearly, there are supporters for both styles. Those who may like to
> > put some labels in their interfaces, but do not want to have to put
> > labels in every line of code, and those who value the extra expressive
> > power of doing so.
>
> I understand that people will have different preferences, but supporting
> two syntaxes has severe disadvantages. As an interim approach it is OK but
> it will be harder for beginners and may split the users development
> efforts. I understand the arguments for both styles, so I haven't yet
> decided what I'll do. Since I'm pretty tolerant of verbosity (Ada user:-)
> I'll probably try to exclusively use the modern mode.
While I agree with you that the current situation may be a bit
disturbing for beginners (they will probably choose the style they are
taught), it is not true that efforts are splitted. This was the point
in merging. The two styles are completely compatible, and in a same
project the two styles may be combined freely, on a file unit
(directory, with makefiles). This last approach is not encouraged, but
this is possible.
If you are not yet fixed on the style you will choose, then I can only
encourage your choosing modern mode. My personal point of view, as I
proposed it with olabl, is that writing more labels costs nothing, and
that commutation (or rather the irrelevance of the order) of arguments
is a real plus.
Concerning future, if at some point there appears a consensus that the
modern mode is better, then it would be possible to switch things the
other way round, modern mode being the default, and classic mode being
left for legacy software and irreducibles. But currently compatibility
seems to matter more.
Jacques
------------------------------------------------------
Jacques Garrigue, visiting INRIA from Kyoto University
Jacques.Garrigue at inria.fr
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