Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watdragon!violet!afscian
From: afscian@violet.waterloo.edu (Anthony Scian)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Why are @, `, and $ not used in C?
Keywords: This is a historic question
Message-ID: <16498@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 19 Sep 89 03:07:58 GMT
References: <509.nlhp3@oracle.nl>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: afscian@violet.waterloo.edu (Anthony Scian)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 24

In article <509.nlhp3@oracle.nl> bengsig@oracle.nl (Bjorn Engsig) writes:
>I know that $ is often allowed in identifiers so that is ruled out, but
>couldn't @ and/or ` have been used for something useful.
One compiler used the '@' sign to give a small data model program
on the 8086 an extra 64K. The '@' represented an indirection
based off the ES register instead of DS. I don't recall if '@'
was used instead of '*' like:

	if( p ) {
	    (@p).field = @q;
	}

or Pascal-ish like:

	if( p ) {
	    p@.field = q@;
	}

It was a clever trick for getting an extra 64K before
the days of memory models.
--
Anthony
//// Anthony Scian afscian@violet.uwaterloo.ca afscian@violet.waterloo.edu ////
"I can't believe the news today, I can't close my eyes and make it go away" -U2