Re: language design after Algol 60

On 14/04/2018 05:19, Robin Vowels wrote:
> From: "bartc" <bc@freeuk.com>
> Sent: Friday, April 13, 2018 4:40 AM
>
>
>> But it is not adding extra syntax; if anything it is getting rid of it!
>> If a for-loop starts like this:
>>
>>     for i:=1 to n do ...
>>
>> Then by leaving out the bits not needed you end up with this:
>>
>>     to n do ...
>
> The control variable, i, must not be omitted.
> It may be required for computations within the loop
> (including subscript references).
>
> Even if not explicitly referenced within the loop,
> its value will be required for fault finding (with error control
> and/or with debugger).


Huh? Who says that?


This example is from my language (inspired by Algol68), where the
control variable /can/ be omitted. And it's not needed any more than you
need one here for this line of code repeated three times:


          print "*"
          print "*"
          print "*"


(For that matter, it can be omitted from a C for-loop too, if only
because that language is so crude it doesn't even have the concept of a
control variable for a loop.)


>> A repeat-n-times loop (one that doesn't have to maintain an explicit
>> loop counter accessible as a reference-counted variable from the source
>> code).
>
> It's still required, as described above.


If implemented as an actual loop (rather than unrolling or whatever),
then there might be a count kept somewhere. But it doesn't need to be in
a format compatible with the regular variables in the language or be
part of its type system.


The count might also increment upwards or downwards; more likely the latter.


If a loop index is needed for fault-finding, then you just switch over
to for-loop that does have the index.


--
bartc

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