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sn#807776 filedate 1985-10-07 generic text, type C, neo UTF8
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\input macro.tex
\def\today{\ifcase\month\or
January\or February\or March\or April\or May\or June\or
July\or August\or September\or October\or November\or December\fi
\space\number\day, \number\year}
\baselineskip 14pt
\rm
\line{\sevenrm a75.tex[106,phy] \today\hfill}
\bigskip
\line{\bf Comments.\hfill}
A Pascal program may contain information addressed to human readers, set off
by symbols that tell the translator to ignore whatever they contain. The
standard ways to enclose comments are:
\smallskip
{\obeylines\obeyspaces\let =\ \tt
$\{$ THIS IS A COMMENT $\}$
(* so is this *)
}
\smallskip\noindent
with curly brackets $\{\ldots\}$ or starred parentheses {\tt (* ... *)},
depending on the keyboard used. It is good programming practice to include at
the beginning of a program a comment giving the name and account identification
of the writer, with the date of origin and the external name of
the original form of the program. For example:
\smallskip
{\obeylines\obeyspaces\let =\ \tt
PROGRAM HIGHMATH (OUTPUT);
(* COPYRIGHT DEC. 11, 1984, ROBERT W. FLOYD *)
(* [R.RWF]EXMPL.PGO *)
BEGIN
WRITE('2+2=',2+2)
END.
}
\smallskip\noindent
By so identifying my program, copyright law protects it to some
extent, as my intellectual property, from unauthorized copying. More mundanely,
my name allows lost printouts to be returned to me. (Student programs often
are turned in to graders without identification; internal identification
then is very helpful.) My account name facilitates
sending me electronic mail about the program, for example by disgruntled users.
The date and file name allow me to locate backup copies of the program in
my computing center's archives if my own version is inadvertently destroyed.
Comments can be used throughout a program, typically to explain complicated
algorithms to the reader.
\bigskip
\line{\copyright 1984 Robert W. Floyd\hfill}
\line{First draft (not published) December 12, l984.\hfill}
\bye