frank@grep.co.uk (Frank Wales) (01/31/91)
"Thou shalt have respect for thy User's data wherever thou findest them.
For otherwise, someday thou shalt scribble on something of value.
And thy User shall liken thee to a small pile of bat guano."
--the nth commandment, where n is small.
\begin{proselytise}
It is, in engineering terms, a bad idea to have an operation, be it
implemented as a program, function or whatever, to have side-effects on
its environment which aren't directly necessary to the achievement of
the operation's task. An operation should do all it needs to perform a
task, and only what it needs; no more. Applying this principle to
your software will earn you the gratitude of others who use your work.
\end{proselytise}
The reason I bring this up is in relation to the discussion on CLEAR. It
is no more desirable to CLEAR the stack than it is to CLVAR the current
directory, or to STOF over the current flag settings, as a means to achieving
some programming end, unless the end actually needs these things to be done.
--
Frank Wales, Grep Limited, [frank@grep.co.uk<->uunet!grep!frank]
Kirkfields Business Centre, Kirk Lane, LEEDS, UK, LS19 7LX. (+44) 532 500303