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From: mcdaniel@adi.com (Tim McDaniel)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: SIMPLE malloc & pointer question
Message-ID: <MCDANIEL.90Aug7111856@dolphin.adi.com>
Date: 7 Aug 90 15:18:56 GMT
References: <7206@helios.TAMU.EDU>
Sender: news@adi.COM
Organization: Applied Dynamics Int'l.
Lines: 42
In-reply-to: jdm5548@diamond.tamu.edu's message of 7 Aug 90 02:08:58 GMT

jdm5548@diamond.tamu.edu (James Darrell McCauley) asked about setting
a function argument.  The answer has been given elsewhere (argument
values are local; changes are not passed back to the parent).  I just
have small style quibbles.

   main()
   { ...
   inita(a,b);
   ... }

   inita (a,b)
   int a[],b[];
   {
     a=(int *)malloc( (unsigned) 4*sizeof(int));
     ...
   }

I have style rules to avoid confusion in the reader and to avoid bugs:
* I declare before use, even if the compiler seems to let me get away
  with it.
  inita was not a problem only because it returns type int.
* I don't try to lie to the compiler.
  If a function doesn't return a value, I define it "void".
  If a function is taking a pointer as argument, I say so, because you
  can't pass arrays as arguments in C.

Inita falls under both these points.

So I would have written

   void inita (a,b)
   int *a, *b;
   { ... }

   main ()
   { ... }

--
"I'm not a nerd -- I'm 'socially challenged'."

Tim McDaniel
Internet: mcdaniel@adi.com             UUCP: {uunet,sharkey}!amara!mcdaniel