“A damn stupid thing to do” – The origins of CPL, BCPL, and C (2020)

Re:“A damn stupid thing to do” – The origins of CPL, BCPL, a... by captainmuon on Monday December 12, 2022 @04:19AM (#33952624)

Maybe language changed since then, but to me 'else' sounds right and 'or' sounds wrong:

    IF (condition) THEN (do-this) ELSE (do-that).

I think 'or' would not go with alternative commands, but with an alternative condition:

    IF (condition) THEN (do-this) OR (other-condition) THEN (do-that).

If you don't want to use 'else' then 'otherwise' would sound idiomatic, too.

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Re:“A damn stupid thing to do” – The origins of CPL, BCPL, a... by smcl on Monday December 12, 2022 @06:32AM (#33953541)

Remember that there’s already two commonly used elements of logic and programming (bitwise OR, logical OR) that may well form part of condition/other-condition, so while if/then/or may (subjectively) scan a little better in isolation, I think “else” might have been the right call

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