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From: alexande@unc.cs.unc.edu (Geoffrey D. Alexander)
Newsgroups: gnu.gcc.bug
Subject: Re: bug in gcc-1.36 structure initialization .
Message-ID: <11551@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Date: 20 Jan 90 18:21:08 GMT
References: <9001170733.AA09095@life.ai.mit.edu> <11506@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Sender: news@thorin.cs.unc.edu
Reply-To: alexande@unc.cs.unc.edu (Geoffrey D. Alexander)
Distribution: gnu
Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 25

In article <11506@thorin.cs.unc.edu> I write:
 >K&R, 2nd edition states the following in section A8.7 (bottom of page 219):
 >
 >   The initializer for a union is either a single expression of the same
 >   type, or a brace-enclosed initializer for the first member of the union.
 >
 >Note that MyStruct has one member of type MyUnion.  Since type MyUnion is a
 >union, it must either be initialize by an expression of type MyUnion or an
 >brace_enclosed initializer for the first member of the union which has type
 >char*.  I assume you wish to initialize abc.name to 0.  To do this, you must
 >have two set of braces:
 >
 >  MyStruct abc = { {0} }
 >
 >This compiles without error under gcc 1.36 on a Sun-3M60 running SunOS 4.0.3.
 >I don't believe the problem you reported is a bug.
 >
 >Geoff Alexander

If have been informed, although K&R 2ed doesn't mention it, that the ANSI
standard allows the inner set of braces to be dropped in this case.  The
problem reported is actually a bug.  However, the work-around is to use
two sets of braces until there is a fix.

Geoff Alexander