Bliss was Re: DEC program listing

[Paul Koning]

>>>>> "Huw" == Huw Davies <huw.davies at kerberos.davies.net.au> writes:

 Huw> On 16/08/2005, at 3:07 AM, Dwight K. Elvey wrote:

 >> Things like i + 1 =: i or i + 1 -> i make much more sense. This
 >> typical high level language format makes reading code
 >> confusing. Sometimes one reads left to right for operations while
 >> others, one has to look to the right to find the sequence and then
 >> look to the left to complete.

 Huw> I've always wondered why the form i + 1 -> i never took off. I
 Huw> recall at least one programming language I looked at (can't
 Huw> remember the name right now ...

POP-2.  Everything is left-associative.  And then of course there is
APL, where everything is right-associative.

 Huw> I don't like c very much but I do appreciate that it's really a
 Huw> high- level assembler ...

As is Bliss, of course.  If you want a high level language, use
Pascal.  If you want one suitable for system programming, there's
Modula-2 (which was used by DEC for that purpose).  Or Algol variants
(such as Espol, used in the Burroughs mainframe OS).

      paul