(unknown charset) Semi-colon question

From: (unknown charset) John Stout <"John>
Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2004 21:25:03 +0100

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When teaching Pascal we always found the students had problems with:

        IF ... THEN
                S1;
        ELSE
                S2;
        S3

since they found it hard to see why you needed the ; after S2 but it caused
problems after S1. Obviously with Modula/Oberon/Component Pascal this
problem has vanished, and the associated problem of teaching the BEGIN/END
compound statement has also gone, but I still find that I automatically
write:

        IF ... THEN
                S1;
                S2
        ELSE
                S3;
                S4
        END;
        S6

Yes, it's awkward having to go back and put the ; in if you want to add an
S5, but most of the editors I've used require that you either start at the
S4 and press Enter to get the alignment right or press TABs to get S5
aligned correctly so I never find it that much of a problem.

I teach it as a matter of style, but emphasise it is a matter of style, a
bit like not writing:

        IF aBoolean = TRUE THEN
        END

John Stout

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Received on Fri Oct 01 2004 - 22:25:03 UTC