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Discussion on: We don't need a ternary operator

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dfeuster profile image
Daniel Feuster

@Blaine I like to think of all the various programming languages as exactly that, languages. Imagine if you will, that C is latin. Its the root of most modern "western" languages (for brevity sake). Each language that sprouts from it has syntax that is similar but more refined and easier to use in particular circumstances that are important to that language. Then within that language itself there are deeper refinements, these are the regional dialects. It's actually quite interesting.

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bosepchuk profile image
Blaine Osepchuk

Yes, I'm aware. The research shows that C-like language syntax is basically as hard to learn as random syntax. That's not good. It makes programming harder than it needs to be. And every time I see some crazy-dense and indecipherable code I wonder what we're really doing here. Are we trying to be cryptographers, jerks, or what?

Programming is already cognitively demanding. We should be saving or brain cycles for our programs, not trying to remember all the obscure edge cases of the ternary operator in C.