When words are good and when words are bad

[Jon Mauney]

> From: david at ukma.UUCP (David Herron, NPR Lover)
> Subject: When words are good and when words are bad
> Message-ID: <1985 at ukma.UUCP>
> 
> What I think both these people are trying to say is that WORDS are
> very imprecise.  Especially when asked to handle precise objects
> as are found inside computers.  But then my biggest gripe about
> pascal is that it's full of words.  The words get in the way of
> understanding the code.
> ...
> They didn't use words.  They used symbols.  And lines.
> ...
> One of the BEST features of C is that 90% of the words you see
> on the page are VARIABLES.  And ALL words are seperated by graphical
> symbols of one sort or another.  Enabling you to quickly see where
> variables are (as long as you don't name Input File as "if") and
> where all the operators are.  (i.e. you don't have a = b mod c,
> instead you have a = b % c).
> 
> G'night.  I'm rambling.
> -- 
> --- David Herron

Symbols are useful because they permit a small object to represent
a large idea.  But remember that words are also symbols, just slightly
longer.  The trouble with graphic symbols is that their meaning is
arbitrarily assigned -- why should '%' mean modulus?  it looks like
a percent sign to me.  And even so, it is imprecise: is that a true
mathmatical modulus or simply remainder after division?  The exact 
meaning of a symbol must be set down in a set of rules and memorized,
whether that symbol is a word or a single squiggle.  The differences are:
 a) squiggles are shorter, making them easier to type, easier to fit
    on a line or a screenful, but also easier to overlook when
    scanning a page.
 b) squiggles don't look like variables or procedure names
 c) squiggles have no relation to other experience, such as natural language,
    and thus take more effort to memorize.
If symbols are so great, why not do away with keywords entirely?  We could
use <- for "goto", @-> for "if", >< for "while", and [->] for "switch".
Wouldn't that make programs a lot easier to read?

-- 

Jon Mauney,    mcnc!ncsu!mauney       "The door's not shut on my genius, but...
North Carolina State University        I just don't have the time."