Computers for children

From: Uncle Roger <sinasohn_at_ricochet.net>
Date: Fri Jan 15 17:16:47 1999

At 11:37 PM 1/14/99 -0800, you wrote:
>I've never seen a "BY" modifier although I wouldn't doubt that some BASIC
>could have been designed with it. But are you sure you didn't mean
>"STEP"?

Okay, so I've been doing COBOL too long... 8^) Yes, in BASIC it's STEP.
Same idea as COBOL's BY option. (In COBOL it would be PERFORM VARYING
variable BY inc FROM start UNTIL variable IS GREATER THAN end (I think --
it's not a common usage of the Perform verb.))

>and while loops (I rarely use for's), but C really suffers from a lack of
>a general error trapping mechanism that one can invoke to break out of
>loops as required. Sometimes I think goto's are the answer but I can
>never find an appropriate way to implement it.

errflag := 0 /* is it := in C to assign a value? */
DO WHILE variable < end AND errflag = 0 {
  do stuff
  variable++ /* I think that increments a variable */
  IF error THEN
     errflag := 1
  ENDIF
LOOP

IF errflag = 1 THEN
   do error processing
ENDIF

No, I'm not a C programmer (nor do I play one on TV).


--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-

Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger_at_sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
Received on Fri Jan 15 1999 - 17:16:47 GMT

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