RE: Adoption of new RPG techniques

["Joe Pluta" <joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: James Rich
> 
> In any case on this particular example I wasn't directly speaking to
the
> free/fixed debate, but rather stating that it would be nice to allow
> functions as arguments to some bifs.  Now I'm nervous that someone
will
> point out that that too is possible.

Consider it pointed.


> And I'm pointing out that it is the freedom of the extended factor 2
> that you like, not the rigidity of fixed format.

No, what we're saying is that /free doesn't add much to the fixed format
syntax.  Extended factor two just has a little less real estate, and as
Rick has taken great pains to show, that doesn't really hurt, especially
if you're taking the time to REALLY make your code readable.  In fact, a
lot of code cowboys use the extra real estate just to make long,
illegible lines.  More real estate does not automatically lead to more
readable code.

The point of this issue has always been that the negatives of /free (no
syntax checking, weird semicolon requirement, no MOVE) far outweigh any
perceived benefits.  The only real benefits of /free are the indenting
and the extra real estate, and we're just showing that we can pretty
much do without either one.

More real estate is better, but is it enough of an improvement to lose
syntax checking?  Ugh.  I wouldn't want to force that on my programmers.

Joe