Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like language

Martin Ward <martin@gkc.org.uk>
Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:51:09 +0000

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Related articles
[30 earlier articles]
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com (Robert A Duff) (2011-01-06)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like DrDiettrich1@aol.com (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2011-01-08)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like robin51@dodo.com.au (robin) (2011-01-10)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2011-01-10)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like haberg-news@telia.com (Hans Aberg) (2011-01-10)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like compilers@is-not-my.name (2011-01-10)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like martin@gkc.org.uk (Martin Ward) (2011-01-12)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like martin@gkc.org.uk (Martin Ward) (2011-01-12)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like DrDiettrich1@aol.com (Hans-Peter Diettrich) (2011-01-12)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like mcr@wildcard.demon.co.uk (Martin Rodgers) (2011-01-12)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2011-01-13)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like gah@ugcs.caltech.edu (glen herrmannsfeldt) (2011-01-13)
Re: language design implications for variant records in a pascal-like compilers@is-not-my.name (2011-01-13)
[19 later articles]
| List of all articles for this month |
From: Martin Ward <martin@gkc.org.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:51:09 +0000
Organization: Compilers Central
References: 10-12-040 11-01-009 11-01-027
Keywords: Cobol, history
Posted-Date: 13 Jan 2011 00:09:42 EST

On Thursday 06 Jan 2011 at 22:24, John wrote:
> To avoid that problem,
> COBOL programmers did wacky things like starting all variable names
> with a digit, just to avoid the reserved words.


The method used at one shop was:


(1) All variable names must include at least one hyphen;


(2) The list of "reserved words containing hyphens" (which is substantial,
but dramatically smaller than the total list of all reserved words)
was printed out in a large font on a big sheet of paper and
pasted to the wall.


Essentially, *every* non-hyphenated word was treated as reserved.


--
Martin


STRL Reader in Software Engineering and Royal Society Industry Fellow
martin@gkc.org.uk http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/ Erdos number: 4
G.K.Chesterton web site: http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/
Mirrors: http://www.gkc.org.uk and http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc


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