Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: X3J11 Pleasanton meeting summary
Message-ID: <1990Oct2.164709.23887@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <13996@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 90 16:47:09 GMT

In article <13996@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>	p.63 "when the size ... is needed" means when needed by the rules
>	in the STANDARD, not when needed by the implementation.

Tsk tsk.  That just punts the issue.  As I pointed out in my submissions
to *both* second and third public reviews, there is *no* definition of
the phrase "when the size is needed", and no easy way to infer one.
*What* "rules in the STANDARD"???  The only place where the size is
unambiguously needed is sizeof.

>	struct foo x;
>	struct foo { int i; };
>	/* the above is strictly conforming; incomplete-type objects can
>	   be defined, so long as by the end of the translation unit the
>	   type becomes complete so that storage can then be allocated */

Betcha there isn't a compiler on Earth that will accept that today.
Everyone I know read the size as being needed at the time of the declaration.
-- 
Imagine life with OS/360 the standard  | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
operating system.  Now think about X.  |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry