Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!aplcen!haven!adm!cmcl2!phri!marob!cowan From: cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: forward references in typedefs Message-ID: <24CB9E07.9547@marob.masa.com> Date: 24 Jul 89 22:53:57 GMT References: <55480@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> <1989Jul20.152935.14872@utzoo.uucp> Reply-To: cowan@marob.masa.com (John Cowan) Organization: ESCC, New York City Lines: 18 In article <1989Jul20.152935.14872@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: >...it's very unusual for different >struct pointers to have different representations, so the compiler knows >how big a pointer it's got even if it's not quite sure what it points to.) For "very unusual" read "illegal". As someone (Chris Torek?) said earlier in this group, "all 'struct' pointers must 'smell' the same." If this behavior is not guaranteed, forward references to structs would be unimplementable in one pass. Ufcawss, if you talk to the people who wrote VMS C, they'll tell you that all one-pass implementations of C are unacceptable! (This has something to do with generating good code for the 'switch' statement.) -- Internet/Smail: cowan@marob.masa.com Dumb: uunet!hombre!marob!cowan Fidonet: JOHN COWAN of 1:107/711 Magpie: JOHN COWAN, (212) 420-0527 Charles li reis, nostre emperesdre magnes Set anz toz pleins at estet in Espagne.