From: "Ford, Mike" on
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tedd [mailto:tedd.sperling(a)gmail.com]
> Sent: 25 September 2010 16:02


> One can make the argument that the ELSE IF statement first surfaced
> circa 1977 in FORTRAN 77 and the CASE statement came later in
> FORTRAN
> 90 circa 1991.

Being a fully-fledged member of the pedants' society, I can't let that go without comment.

Those dates only hold if you stick to FORTRAN. Algol-68 had if-elif-else-fi, and I don't believe it was a pioneer in the structure even then (although the syntax may have been novel). It also had a case-esac structure. I'd say both elseif and case/switch developed in other languages and were adopted into FORTRAN long after they were established as bona fide programming constructs.

Cheers!

Mike

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From: tedd on
At 11:48 AM +0100 9/27/10, Ford, Mike wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
>> From: tedd [mailto:tedd.sperling(a)gmail.com]
>> Sent: 25 September 2010 16:02
>
>
>> One can make the argument that the ELSE IF statement first surfaced
>> circa 1977 in FORTRAN 77 and the CASE statement came later in
>> FORTRAN
>> 90 circa 1991.
>
>Being a fully-fledged member of the pedants' society, I can't let
>that go without comment.
>
>Those dates only hold if you stick to FORTRAN. Algol-68 had
>if-elif-else-fi, and I don't believe it was a pioneer in the
>structure even then (although the syntax may have been novel). It
>also had a case-esac structure. I'd say both elseif and case/switch
>developed in other languages and were adopted into FORTRAN long
>after they were established as bona fide programming constructs.
>
>Cheers!
>
>Mike

Mike:

And I can't let your statement go without saying that my statement
was taken out of context. For example, following the quote you
provided was:

"But I know I was using computed GOTOs and GOSUBs long before then."

Which puts forth a situation that you actually support in your
rebuttal. In short, you are supporting my argument.

Additionally, I said that "One can make the argument...", which was
not the argument that I was making (nor you). If you disagree with
what I am disagreeing, then we are in agreement.

So, we are in agreement that constructs found in other languages
preceded those finally adopted into FORTRAN.

The main point of my post (not supported by anything other than my
logic) was that the CASE construct was more likely derived from the
computed GOTO rather than from the ELSEIF construct.

Do you agree with that?

Cheers,

tedd

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