Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!rna!kc
From: kc@rna.UUCP (Kaare Christian)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: ambiguity
Keywords: cast, abstract_declarator
Message-ID: <678@rna.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jun 89 15:42:00 GMT
Organization: Rockefeller University - Neurobiology
Lines: 17

Zortech C++ (v1.07) failed to compile the following line,
complaining  "bad abstract_declarator".
    val = min + ( double(y_pointer) / double(slide_ht)) * (max-min);

It had no problem with the line
    val = min + ( (double)y_pointer / double(slide_ht)) * (max-min);
or with the line
    val = min +   double(y_pointer) / double(slide_ht)  * (max-min);

Is this an ambiguity in C++, or is Zortech just not smart enough?

Clearly, when the compiler sees the first paren followed by a type name,
it must trudge on quite a ways to figure out that the paren is part
of an expression, not part of a cast.

Kaare Christian
kc@rna.rockefeller.edu