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From: cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca (Christopher Browne)
Subject: Re: Source Code of 6.??
Message-ID: <1993Jan31.205006.19276@csi.uottawa.ca>
Keywords: GCC, ReadLine Interface
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Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, University of Ottawa
References: <1993Jan27.200013.5549@csi.uottawa.ca> <1993Jan30.232511.28879@fid.morgan.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 93 20:50:06 GMT
Lines: 27

In article <1993Jan30.232511.28879@fid.morgan.com> hui@fid.morgan.com (Roger Hui) writes:
>Christopher Browne writes:
>
>> ...
>> A while back, I'd looked at the source code, and thought that it was
>> written in Obfusticated C.  In looking again, I think I was wrong.  It
>> just LOOKS confusing, and that's probably a function of J being a
>> fairly complex language.
>
>The source assumes familiarity with both J and C, and is 
>essentially J under a veneer of C symbols and syntax.  The reader 
>who knows C but not J operates at a greater disadvantage than one 
>who knows J but not C. 

My first reaction to the source was: "They've run it through a code
obscurer, so that people can compile it, but so it can't be
reverse-engineered."

It's certainly not "typical C" code, but it's pretty clear now that
it's not deliberately confusing.  To people that don't know J very
well, it'll certainly be confusing, but then, people who know very
little about J probably shouldn't be trying to hack on the source!
-- 
Christopher Browne                |     PGP 2.0 key available
cbbrowne@csi.uottawa.ca           |======================================
University of Ottawa              | Genius may have its limitations, but
Master of System Science Program  | stupidity is not thus handicapped.
