XPost: alt.folklore.computers   
   From: commodorejohn@gmail.com   
      
   On Thu, 8 Jan 2026 07:00:14 -0000 (UTC)   
   Lawrence D’Oliveiro  wrote:   
      
   > > Is that why people wrote programs bottom-up (i.e. with the main   
   > > function at the bottom to avoid forward references)?     
   >    
   > C is also like that. And C++, for all its enormous complexity in other   
   > areas, preserves the tradition.   
      
   C had forward declarations from early on, but they were somewhat janky   
   in K&R; by the time ANSI C was finalized they had full, proper forward   
   declarations, though the old-style (declare the function and its return   
   type, but not the parameters) were still allowed for legacy reasons.   
      
   Even now there's a certain temptation to write small programs that way;   
   more modern programmers' editors make it easier to navigate through a   
   large source file, and it's easier to compile a one-filer than to set   
   up and maintain a makefile. Doesn't scale well, though.   
      
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