Timeline for answer to Why are statements in many programming languages terminated by semicolons? by Oded
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21 events
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| Feb 15, 2014 at 23:09 | comment | added | supercat | @ChrisBye: The placement of the semicolon is standard on modern keyboards, but I don't think that was necessarily true when the languages that use them were first designed. | |
| Mar 14, 2012 at 16:36 | comment | added | Ricky Clarkson | In the beginning there were only semi-colons, and the major invention was to add programming language statements in their midst. :) | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 14:22 | comment | added | BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft | +1 this is the correct reason. Regardless of why C chose to use semicolons, the reason many other languages use semicolon separators is because they're based (sometimes loosely) on C. | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 14:19 | comment | added | Mark Booth | @Oded - I know, I was helping inform others who may not have read Gödel, Escher, Bach (where I first saw this, having never read A Brief History of Time, which I really should get around to). | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 14:16 | comment | added | Oded | @MarkBooth - Aye, indeed what I was referring to. | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 14:15 | comment | added | Mark Booth | @Oded - I think you'll find it's Turtles all the way down. *8') | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 14:15 | comment | added | Chris Bye | Is there any evidence that perhaps the semi-colon's convenient position on QWERTY layout keyboards contributed to its common use? | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 13:41 | history | edited | Oded | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 13, 2012 at 12:59 | comment | added | hugomg | -1; Come on guys, have we all forgotten the hugely influential ALGOL? It had semicolons as statement separators before everything else you are mentioning. (I don't know if it took the idea from somewhere else though) | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 12:45 | comment | added | Plutor | The most important thing to note is that the semicolon actually came from BCPL -- where it was only required between statements on a single line. It was optional at the end of a line (a change implemented in B). So when it was first chosen, its use was almost exactly analogous to its use in English. | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 12:10 | comment | added | Oded | @Skomski - Which followed what? I am waiting for that last turtle to come in ;) | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 12:03 | comment | added | Skomski | B just followed the convention of using semicolons as used by its predecessor 'PL/I' :) | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 10:22 | comment | added | c0da | Ahh... I was confused when you write the word function... :) | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 10:01 | comment | added | Oded | @c0da - My point is that the linked questions is about what it means (in the language), this one is about why it was used. | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 10:01 | history | edited | Oded | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 13, 2012 at 9:54 | comment | added | c0da | @Oded I knew that the question was about C++... But isn't the ; a sort of punctuator in c as well? It goes with what you answered: to indicate spearate statements. | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 9:54 | comment | added | Crollster | C just followed the convention of using semicolons as used by its predecessor 'B' | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 9:49 | comment | added | Oded |
@c0da - You have linked to the correct answer to a different question (that question asks what the ; means in C++, this question asks why the semicolon character was used for the function).
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| Mar 13, 2012 at 9:48 | history | edited | Oded | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 13, 2012 at 9:47 | comment | added | c0da | Check the correct answer for this question: stackoverflow.com/questions/6464436/what-is-semicolon-in-c | |
| Mar 13, 2012 at 9:42 | history | answered | Oded | CC BY-SA 3.0 |