Programming language failings [was Re: strangest systems I've sent email from]

[Mouse]

> My gripe with C is essentially the same as my grumbles with APL--it's
> far too easy to write obscure code and not document it.

"There is not now, nor will there ever be, a language in which it's the
least bit difficult to write bad code."  Not quite true, of course;
there are languages in which it's remarkably difficult to write _any_
code.  But it _is_ true that there is not, nor (I believe) will there
ever be, any language in which it's substantially more difficult to
write bad code than good code.  (Of course, some languages make
_certain kinds_ of bad code more difficult....)

> Why it appeals to this particular foible of human nature has always
> been a mystery to me.

I doubt it's C that appeals particularly.  I've done my share of
writing obscure code and not documenting it (I like to think I've
learnt better, at least somewhat, by now), and C is relevant only in
that it happens to be the language I most commonly work in.  I find the
same tendency showing up in other languages, anything from sh to DSLs.

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