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From: brnstnd@stealth.acf.nyu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: Pointers as 3-tuples
Message-ID: <6706:Apr1101:07:0290@stealth.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 11 Apr 90 01:07:02 GMT
References: <5.Q2H42xds13@ficc.uu.net> <14309@lambda.UUCP>
Reply-To: brnstnd@stealth.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Distribution: usa
Organization: IR
Lines: 15
X-Original-Subject: Re: JLG's flogging of horses

In article <14309@lambda.UUCP> jlg@lambda.UUCP (Jim Giles) writes:
  [ about the dimensions of an array ]
> As for "known at compile time" - well, N and M aren't if they were
> passed as parameters.  Oh, but that's illegal in C too.  I've never
> heard a rational reason for it to be illegal, but that's how things
> go. 

Efficiency and simplicity, as is obvious from the machine language. I
and many others agree that variable dimensions are useful enough to
offset the angst they cause the compiler. That's why some available
compilers, and probably future standards, support them.

In the meantime you'll just have to settle for manual indexing.

---Dan