portability/maintenance

[Paul Hays]

Attempts to improve C by introducing dummy identifiers are fun, but
they never seem to really improve the language much, IMO.
Instead, I subscribe to the well-known notion that the creativity
of programmers should be curtailed wherever possible. We
should direct our attention to the costly issues of sound
design and thorough documentation. (Duck! Who threw that brick?)

Making a local dialect detracts from one of the main advantages
of C: portability of programming skills. K & R built what has
proved to be a language with wide applicability. Now we have
struggled through years of standard-building to arrive at a
useable portable C. Let's use the standard language.

I've frequently had the, er, opportunity of maintaining huge
applications made with dozens of header files. Such implementations
typically incorporate the 'creative' language ideas of several
previous authors with varying degrees of skill. Many have usually
tried to codify the sort of local standard you have described; these
'standards' always seem to come and go along with the latest manager.
(Yeah, I'm a technical manager: I know whereof I speak.)

How often does the maintenance programmer sit wondering what header
file defines some obscure identifier and whether the current bug
results from its misuse? And how often is the programmer who adds a
feature to a product aware of the subtle implications of the local
standard?

K.I.S.S.!


[The opinions expressed here are mine, not necessarily the company's.]

-- 
Paul Hays                Cognos Incorporated     S-mail: P.O. Box 9707
Voice: (613) 738-1338 ext 3804                           3755 Riverside Drive 
  FAX: (613) 738-0002                                    Ottawa, Ontario 
 uucp: uunet!mitel!sce!cognos!paulh                      CANADA  K1G 3Z4