25 Apr
2020
25 Apr
'20
5:37 a.m.
On Sat, 25 Apr 2020, Rob Pike 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.
I have never seen that syntax used (and I've been tooling around with Unix
for decades). The variable "fp" in an argument list is a pointer to the
function, not the function itself, so dereference it.
I wouldn't put it past Stroustrup to have it in C++ though, as it pretty
much has everything else in it.
Convenient though the shorthand may be, it always
bothered me as
inconsistent and misleading. (I am pretty sure I used it sometimes
regardless.)
Indeed... My principle is to write code as though the next person to
maintain it is a psychopathic axe-murderer who knows where you live (or
perhaps even yourself, a year later)...
-- Dave