gets() - dangerous?

M

Michael Wojcik

I was considering C more specifically than that.

Fair enough. However:
I've encountered many
comments on the white book, none of them negative much beyond "it's
probably not so appropriate for total beginners" or "it's very condensed
and requires much consideration". In particular, I've never encountered a
contradiction of the claim that - and have fairly often encountered the
claim itself - the book is elegant in its concise expression of C idiom.

Well, we don't know how representative your sample is, but let's
assume that there's some popular consensus that the "expression of
C idiom", as you put it, in K&R is "elegant".
"Elegant" and "idiom" are close relatives of "style",

I don't think so. That may be because I have a degree in literature
and am married to a rhetorician, but I believe this is a hard thesis
to support. I can see a possible case for defining "style" in terms
of pragmatics, ie as something like "choice of idiom and manner of
its expression in the context of the utterance", but "elegance" is at
best only one possible dimension of style (and a rather nebulous one
at that).

Further, I can see plenty of potential arguments in favor of inelegant
styles (eg ones that advocate certain kinds of verbose description or
adherence to rigidly-defined templates). I might not make such
arguments myself, but they demonstrate that style can be argued at
cross-purposes to elegance.

However, this has gotten pretty far off-topic, and my point was quite
narrow to begin with: I'm not buying your argument for favoring K&R
style, but I don't have any objection to your favoring it, personally
or for the Wiki. And for all I know your argument may seem plausible
to many.
Any c.l.c reader is a potential editor, so some newsgroup discussion prior
to making a decision helps us make sure it's an appropriate one.

Sure, in principle, and I'm all for discussion, but in practice some
people will be doing the work, and it seems only right to let them
make the decisions - though it's very kind of them to listen to other
opinions.

--
Michael Wojcik (e-mail address removed)

Advertising Copy in a Second Language Dept.:
The precious ovum itself is proof of the oath sworn to those who set
eyes upon Mokona: Your wishes will be granted if you are able to invest
it with eternal radiance... -- Noriyuki Zinguzi
 
M

Mark McIntyre


Gack.

Time to check your insurance policy - your orthodontist appears to
have slipped, and accidentally removed your frontal lobes...

gd&r
Mark McIntyre
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
473,744
Messages
2,569,484
Members
44,903
Latest member
orderPeak8CBDGummies

Latest Threads

Top