Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpfcso!mjs From: mjs@hpfcso.HP.COM (Marc Sabatella) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Changes to C... Message-ID: <8960028@hpfcso.HP.COM> Date: 20 Nov 90 17:11:51 GMT References: Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA Lines: 19 >How would you fix C without breaking a lot of C code? One "solution" would just be to say "switch to C++", but I assume you mean something less dramatic. At the risk of fanning the old comp.lang.c wars, add "noalias". Whether or not "alias" would be more natural is moot if we don't want to break existing code. Similarly, the simple change of having array parameter declarations recognized as entities which cannot be aliased to other array parameters would break existing code. Allow portable constructs (non-portable #pragma's aren't good enough) to declare when functions have no side effects - or what I think is an equivalent statement, that the function is purely number-theoretic over its arguments and return value. Compilers that can make this determination themselves get bonus points. This would make a very good start.