pls@ncsu.UUCP (Phillip L. Shaffer) (11/07/84)
I would like to obtain a consensus, or at least a few opinions, on a minor point in C syntax. I have recently obtained the Eco-C C compiler for my Z-80 machine, and and am generally happy. It is doing one thing that I haven't seen before in other C compilers (namely UNIX 4.2BSD or DeSmet on an IBM PC): it complains about spaces after function names for funtions that have not been previously declared - the error message is "illegal function call," or somesuch. If you declare int functions before use, there is no problem. Thus: int foo(); foo (); causes no problem, but foo (); generates the complaint. K&R (p. 186, paragraph 4) seem to sanction this: "a hitherto unseen identifier followed immediately by a left parenthesis is contextually declared to represent a function returning an integer; thus, in the most common case, integer- valued functions need not be declared." The question is: does "followed immediately" mean "with nothing but white space in between" or is it to be taken literally? This is a minor annoyance to me - changing styles slightly and editing old programs before recompiling - but I thought I would get some other opinions before complaining to Eco-Soft. I will appreciate any responses - send mail to me and I will summarize (or post your response if you like). Thanks. Phil Shaffer (pls@ncsu)
david@ukma.UUCP (David Herron) (11/12/84)
<> From: pls@ncsu.UUCP (Phillip L. Shaffer)
<> Subject: Space after undeclared function name
<> Message-ID: <2720@ncsu.UUCP>
<> The question is: does "followed immediately" mean "with nothing
<> but white space in between" or is it to be taken literally?
<> This is a minor annoyance to me - changing styles slightly and
<> editing old programs before recompiling - but I thought I would
<> get some other opinions before complaining to Eco-Soft.
<> I will appreciate any responses - send mail to me and I will
<> summarize (or post your response if you like). Thanks.
<> Phil Shaffer (pls@ncsu)
My opinion is that they are being overly picky. It reminds me of the
PR1ME's the school has for class work. Only two compilers on there
even know what a TAB character is, all the others complain loudly about
unknown characters. (One is a ratfor compiler we found from the prime
user group, and used until they got a C compiler, which is the other
compiler to know what a tab is.)
-----------------------------------------
David Herron
Phone: (606) 257-4244 (phone will be answered as "Vax Lab", usually).
(606) 254-7820
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