Re: DiskBrowser Software - Work In Progress

["Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Jeff Blakeney wrote:
>   To: Bill Buckels
> On Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:23:04 -0500, Bill Buckels wrote:
>
> > The Mind plays its own strange tricks when writing in BASIC (as well as any 
> > programming language:) Regardless, combining multiple statements on the same 
> > line degrades the readability of any program regardless of language.
>
> Sometimes readability isn't important.  Sometime executable size and
> speed is more important.
>
> > Back in the '80's when I moved away from BASIC with line numbers to compiled 
> > BASIC with sub-routines and functions, it had long become my personal 
> > preference to avoid using semi-colons because I absolutely hated needing to 
> > decipher one-liners.
>
> BASIC programmers use colons.  C programmers were the ones with all the
> semi-colons.  At least in BASIC, colons are optional but in C they are
> required at the end of almost every command.  :-)
>
> Deciphering one-liners is easy seeing as there is no branching at all.
> It is simply one command executed after another.

Actually, any IF will affect all remaining statements on the line, which
is the only way of "grouping" statements in a THEN part, and very handy.

FOR-NEXT can also be used to do branching within a line.

Every language, computer or natural, has "high style" and "low style"
variants, and there are situations in which *each* style is appropriate
usage.

Try thinking of Applesoft as a kind of "high level machine language" for
a strange but capable machine, and you will get comfortable with using
its little peculiarities.  ;-)

-michael

AppleCrate II: An Apple II "blade server"!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
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