Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!lupine!rfg
From: rfg@NCD.COM (Ron Guilmette)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: parameter[][]
Message-ID: <1068@lupine.NCD.COM>
Date: 4 Aug 90 00:41:23 GMT
References: <1545@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>
Reply-To: rfg@ncd.com
Organization: Network Computing Devices, Inc., Mt. View, CA
Lines: 35

In article <1545@m1.cs.man.ac.uk> jk@cs.man.ac.uk (John Kewley ICL) writes:
>One of our staff is whineing about having to specify the size of all
>dimensions for a multidimensional array (beyond the first that is).
>
>Can anyone give me some good reasons why this is, so I can placate him.
>He claims that it can be done in C so why can't it be done in C++.

I don't believe that C and C+ are different here.

Consider the following:

	int foobar (int arg1[][5], int (*arg2)[5]);

It ain't obvious, but both arguments have exactly the same type (in both C
and in C++).  That's because of an obscure rule that says that if the type
of a parameter is an array type, that type gets implicitly converted to
a pointer type.

Now if your collegue is grumbling about C vs. C++, tell him to try this
on his favorite C compiler:

	int foobar (p)
		int (*iap)[];
	{
		p++;
	}

When he comes back to you and says that the increment statement was flagged
with an error, then you can both have fun trying to understand why.

-- 
// Ron Guilmette
// C++ Entomologist
// Internet: rfg@ncd.com      uucp: ...uunet!lupine!rfg
// Motto:  If it sticks, force it.  If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway.