English binary logic operators

[Bill Baxter]

BCS wrote:
> David Qualls wrote:
>> I just compiled my first D function (adapted from C), and had to
>> replace all my 'and' 'or' and 'not's with the arcane &&, ||, and !
>> from prehistoric C to get it to compile.
>>
>> iso646.h has been a part of C for several years.  Perl, C++ and
>> possibly other languages have all adopted 'and', 'or', and 'not'
>> as part of their grammar.
>>
>> I write software that will be maintained by non-programmers
>> (mathematicians, who would prefer that I use Fortran).  Lots of
>> funny symbols in source code (like && || !) make it difficult to
>> read for the non-immersed (ah, who am I kidding, I even have
>> trouble reading it now and then).
>>
>> Is there any future to D incluing the logical operators in
>> English, as opposed to &!|%'ish?  (I didn't mention it, but 'mod'
>> might also be a good (easy for non-programmers to understand)
>> substitute for '%'.)
>>
>> David
> 
> Interesting, I have never heard about iso646.h before. I have never seen 
> any code that used it either.

I'd never heard of it either.  But I love the description on this page:
http://www.frech.ch/man/man0p/iso646.h.0p.html

   APPLICATION USAGE
       none.

   RATIONALE
       none.


So it's of no use and there's no reason for it.  Great!

> I only speak for my self, but I wouldn't use it and would find it harder 
> to use. I like the &!|% version because it doesn't look like an identifier.

In &&'s favor it also lets you really cram things together :-)

      if(a&&b&&c)

has to become

      if(a and b and c)

with words.  But that's not necessarily a good thing.  Which of the 
above would you rather be staring at at 3am at the end of a long night 
coding?

--bb