Subject: Re: The horror that is XML
From: Erik Naggum <erik@naggum.net>
Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 21:49:18 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.lang.lisp
Message-ID: <3224353767235988@naggum.net>

* "Eduardo Muñoz"
| Probably I wasn't born yet, so what is "lint"?

  No big loss.  "lint" was a program that would compare actual calls and
  definitions of pre-ANSI C functions because the languge lacked support
  for prototypes, so header files was not enough to ensure consistency and
  coherence between separately compiled files, probably not even within the
  same file, if I recall correctly -- my 7th edition Unix documentation is
  in natural cold storage somewhere on the loft, and it is too goddamn cold
  tonight.  "lint" also ensured that some of the more obvious problems in C
  were detected prior to compilation.  It was effectively distributing the
  complexity of compilation among several programs because the compiler was
  unable to remember anything between each file it had compiled.  ANSI C
  does not prescribe anything useful to be stored after compiling a file,
  either, so manual header file management is still necessary, even though
  this is probably the singularly most unnecessary thing programmers do in
  today's world of programming.  "lint" lingers on.

///
-- 
  In a fight against something, the fight has value, victory has none.
  In a fight for something, the fight is a loss, victory merely relief.