rbutterworth@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ray Butterworth) (05/20/88)
In article <502@wsccs.UUCP>, terry@wsccs.UUCP (Every system needs one) writes: > Yes, but why is > > volitile int foo; > > better than > > int foo; /* VOLITILE*/ > > Except for the optimizer? It's a lot better simply because "volitile int foo;" will cause the compiler to generate a syntax error message, while "/*VOLITILE*/" will be silently ignored. Saying that you might make typos in news articles but never in your code isn't good enough. I make spelling mistakes in both, and while people reading my articles can correct or ignore them, I really appreciate it when the compiler notices and complains. Any system, such as lint's "/*directive*/" or C's "#pragma directive", that silently ignores the dyrective if it is misspelled is potentially dangerous.