Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!usc!ucla-cs!uci-ics!zardoz!tgate!ka3ovk!drilex!axiom!linus!alliant!palladium!nw
From: nw@palladium.UUCP (Neil Webber)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Help, page 197 K&R !!!
Message-ID: <740@palladium.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jul 89 16:26:05 GMT
References: <646@kl-cs.UUCP> <648@kl-cs.UUCP> <CLINE.89Jul1102015@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> <10481@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: nw@palladium.UUCP (Neil Webber)
Organization: Epoch Systems, Marlborough, MA
Lines: 33

In article <10481@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>In article <CLINE.89Jul1102015@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> cline@sun.soe.clarkson.edu (Marshall Cline) writes:
>>	{	char	*p;
>>		p->squiggle = 3;  /* implicit cast of "p" to "(worm_t *)p" */
>
>I don't think that was ever allowed; some older C compilers did permit
>pointers to one structure type to be used to access members of another
>structure type, but that's as weird as I recall it getting.

It looks to me like it got weirder than that, although I have to
confess I have no direct experience with the older systems.

Consider this gem from adb:

	double		fw;	/* Bourne-isms removed for readability */
	struct{
		long int sa;
		short	sb,sc;
	};

		.
		.
		.

	fw.sb=get(inkdot(4),itype);
	fw.sc=get(inkdot(6),itype);

Yes, that's right -- "fw" is type "double" and it is being used
as a structure for bit-twiddling purposes.

-- 
Neil Webber / Epoch Systems, Marlboro MA / (508) 481-3717
        {harvard!cfisun, linus!alliant}!palladium!nw