XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: Peter@Iron-Spring.com   
      
   On 1/1/26 05:49, The Natural Philosopher wrote:   
   > On 01/01/2026 03:07, c186282 wrote:   
   >> On 12/31/25 17:35, The Natural Philosopher wrote:   
   >>> On 31/12/2025 19:21, c186282 wrote:   
   >>>> I've writ stuff with five or six levels of nesting   
   >>>>    but don't like it, usually if/then/else stuff. Oft   
   >>>>    re-did it later to be more easy to follow. IMHO   
   >>>>    readability/comprehensibility is as important as   
   >>>>    functionally correct code.   
   >>>   
   >>> 100% agree.   
   >>>   
   >>> Often write little functions that are only called once. Merely to   
   >>> lexically separate atomic functional blocks.   
   >>>   
   >>> No idea whether the compiler/linker inlines them or not.   
   >>>   
   >>> There is nothing worse than making top level decisions followed by   
   >>> some nitty detail to detect some low level error.   
   >>>   
   >>> e.g. assume a call to allocate memory always works or the call will   
   >>> do the appropriate jump to a global error handler to abort things   
   >>> cleanly.   
   >>>   
   >>> The point of structure was supposed to be to elucidate program flow,   
   >>> not obscure it with elegant formally correct cruft.   
   >>   
   >>   
   >>    Agree.   
   >>   
   >>    As I've said before, I'm still quite fond of Pascal and   
   >>    write apps of various size in it (oft first proto-ed   
   >>    in Python). The structure is 'elegant', but you CAN   
   >>    carry it TOO far, to where it gets in the way instead   
   >>    of helping things.   
   >>   
   > My one and only  experience of trying to make Pascal do what was trivial   
   > in 'C' led me to resolve never ever to touch it again.   
   >   
   > If you are trying to write - as it turned out I was - a disk driver in   
   > pascal, where a given sector may be a byte stream, a series of 16 bit   
   > integers,  or a structure defined by thee first few bytes in the sector,   
   > you end up with a massive union that is so cumbersome it is almost   
   > impossible to read - let alone use.   
      
   Doesn't Pascal have variant records?   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)