rcd@opus.UUCP (06/16/84)
On a tangent from the external-variable discussion... >He's made the same mistake as several people that sent mail to me >privately: he has confused the words "external" and "global". I did >not say "global variables are bad", I said "external variables are bad". >I never said that variables with longer lifetimes than a single function >invocation are a poor idea... We've got confused terminology here. "Global" refers to scope (visibility) of a variable, not to extent (lifetime). It means, roughly, "visible everywhere" just as the name indicates. "External" also refers to scope; it means, in C terms, a variable defined in another module. Given the scoping rules for C, an external variable IS global. I believe that the intent was to point out that the problem lies in the global visibility, not in the static allocation. I agree here; the need for global variables is fairly rare and they do admit the possibility of misuse. -- Dick Dunn {hao,ucbvax,allegra}!nbires!rcd (303)444-5710 x3086 ...Cerebus for dictator!