Question about checks for min and max values

[Fairlight]

Is it just me, or did Nancy Palmquist say:
> In early versions of filePro = was not allowed on an IF line.  It was 
> allowed to be used instead of EQ in response to the programmers that did 
> not understand the difference.  Filepro only responded to the community 
> and their incorrect use of the = was accepted to make them happy.  I do 
> not, however, see this as filepro admitting or accepting the change of 
> meaning, it just did not cause any problem to allow it so they did.

It causes a problem in furthering a misperception--the very one we've been
discussing.  They never should have caved on that one.

> I don't think that filePro misunderstands the difference, it is the 
> programming communitity that is not clear on the difference.  I disagree 
> that filepro is wrong.

They implemented it.  As with anything else they release, they have the
final say.  If they were going on votes from the community, I doubt a
spelling checker would be going into 6.0k.

They're the Responsible Party.

I'll agree that there are undoubtedly many in the community who don't
understand the import of what they wanted/asked for.

> I do not see anything wrong with filePro's behavior.  It behaves 
> according to specification.  How is that wrong?

When you want inward migration rather than outward migration, you do your
best to conform to known standards where possible.  Most CS graduates these
days would probably run shrieking in horror at the use and results of this
operand on strings.  4GL's tend to make their own rules, granted.  But for
a language that's borrowed extensively from others (I recognise parts of
FORTRAN, personally), it never should have been diluted with this quirk.

If you start doing things that flat-out contradict accepted practises (or
if you don't keep up with emerging practises), you tend to find an erosion
of user-base when people say, "Well that makes NO sense.  Gee, neither does
that.  As a matter of fact, a lot of this goes against known practise.
Okay, enough wasting time--drop it and install Access."  Sad, but I've seen
it happen.

> How can you hold filePro to a standard that was created, from scratch, 
> after filepro was designed?  It is impossible to change the behavior of 
> a package that was designed more than 25 years ago, to match a standard 
> that has been determined since.  Think of the headaches that would cause.

"
   C came into being in the years 1969-1973, in parallel with the early
   development of the Unix operating system; the most creative period
"

Do a Google search on "history of C" (without quotes) and it's one of the
first two articles, if not the first one.

I believe Profile 1 was written later than that.  I've heard '78 most
often in discussions. 

mark->
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