RE: Is this the Free-Format that we asked for?

["John Taylor" <john.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Eric,


> I personally have no problem with explicit statement terminators.
> The reason they are incorporated into a language is that it makes it
> much easier to write the compiler.

But why is it more important to simplify the job of the few (compiler
designers), at the expense of the many (us!)? Especially when we consider
that we're not asking Toronto to come up with some new ground breaking
compiler design feature. I've been using free-format compilers that don't
use an end-of-line statements for at least a decade.

In fact, Hans has already mentioned (on the AS400Network forum) that the
original design did not include an end-of-line terminator. Apparently, it
was added to eliminate the need for a continuation character on multiple
line statements. To me, that seems nuts! Surely, we're all writing MANY more
single line statements than multiple ones. Wouldn't this be like reversing
the behaviour of the shift key so that we'd have to hold it down in order to
type lower case letters?

> As far as goto's are concerned I am GLAD GLAD GLAD that they are gone
> :-) If one takes advantage of functions and modular programming then
> the need for goto statements decreases dramatically.

Thank's for your opinion. :)


Regards,

John Taylor
Canada



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