Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!yale!think!samsung!munnari.oz.au!cluster!metro!bunyip!moondance!uqcspe!qfagus!anvil!keithd
From: keithd@anvil.oz (Keith Duddy)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: questionnaire
Message-ID: <1034@anvil.oz>
Date: 23 Jan 90 03:15:17 GMT
References: <17142@ultima.cs.uts.oz>
Organization: Anvil Designs Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Australia
Lines: 26

rick_jones@f616.n713.fido.oz (Rick Jones) writes:

> pA>4.  Do you consider passing a "pointer to a function" to another 
> pA>function
> pA>    which will (blindly?) use it to call that function, a "kosher"
> pA>    programming practice?

>I don't know about blindly, but yes I have quite a few programs that do that.
>particularly my format() module that does all the work for printf, fprintf,
>lprintf, etc.  is called with the pointer to an output function, allowing one
>function to perform multiple roles.

In fact this is the way in which one implements generics in C. If you are
storing some generic data type in a module then you must pass in a function
sometimes to do comparisons/retrievals etc. As long as the interface and
intention of the function is clearly defined then there is no problem. (look
at the qsort/bsearch standard libraries).
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