25 Apr
2020
25 Apr
'20
8:54 a.m.
Another debate at the time was caused by a disagreement between pcc and cc
regarding enums: are they a type or just a way to declare constant? I
remember getting annoyed by pcc not letting me declare a constant with an
enum and use it as an int. I protested to scj and dmr and after some to-ing
and fro-ing Steve changed pcc to treat them as constants.
Not sure it was the right decision, but C desperately wanted a non-macro
way to define a constant. I'd probably argue the same way today. The real
lesson is how propinquity affects progress.
-rbo
On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 12:51 PM Rob Pike <robpike(a)gmail.com> wrote:
The ability to call a function pointer fp with the
syntax fp() rather than
(*fp)() came rather late, I think at Bjarne's suggestion or example. Pretty
sure it was not in v7 C, as you observe.
Convenient though the shorthand may be, it always bothered me as
inconsistent and misleading. (I am pretty sure I used it sometimes
regardless.)
-rob
On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 12:48 PM Adam Thornton <athornton(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>
> On Apr 24, 2020, at 7:37 PM, Charles Anthony <charles.unix.pro(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 7:00 PM Adam Thornton <athornton(a)gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> This doesn’t like the function pointer.
>>
>
>> $ cc -c choparg.c
>> choparg.c:11: Call of non-function
>>
>> Perhaps:
>
> (*fcn)(arg);
>
>
> We have a winner!
>
> Also, Kartik, dunno where it is on the net, but if you install a v7
> system, /usr/src/cmd/c
>
> Adam
>
>