Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: sizeof() confusion
Message-ID: <14462@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 15 Nov 90 18:17:53 GMT
References: <2665@cirrusl.UUCP> <2692@cirrusl.UUCP> <1990Nov14.154213.27324@cbnewsj.att.com>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 20

In article <1990Nov14.154213.27324@cbnewsj.att.com> asd@cbnewsj.att.com (Adam S. Denton) writes:
>You take sizeof() of an object, not an expression.

Not so; there are two distinct uses of sizeof:
	sizeof unary_expression
	sizeof ( type_name )

The former does operate on an expression; however the expression is not
evaluated (so no side effects occur), only the type of the expression is
relevant.

A particularly simple form of unary expression consists of just the
identifier for an object, but more complex expressions are permitted.

>Your [dhesi's] view is nice, but is not C.
>[...]
>It is the responsibility of the programmer to know the language
>and use it properly, whether the language is perfect or not.

Now that you got right.