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From: amgreene@athena.mit.edu (Andrew Marc Greene)
Subject: Re: Compiler code (was a flame fest)
Message-ID: <1991Apr18.122054.13695@athena.mit.edu>
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References: <1991Apr16.001748.26530@uncecs.edu> <1991Apr16.183638.12808@cs.cornell.edu> <1991Apr17.180342.25312@engin.umich.edu>
Date: Thu, 18 Apr 91 12:20:54 GMT
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In article <1991Apr17.180342.25312@engin.umich.edu> milamber@caen.engin.umich.edu (Daryl Cantrell) writes:
>  I don't think you take his meaning... If you have an expression like
>
>  a * b + c * d
>
>C defines the order of operations with regard to the operators.  That is,
>the multiplications will be performed before the addition.  However, there
>is no way to know whether a * b or c * d will be evaluated first.  Simi-
>larly, it is not defined whether a or b will be evaluated first in the
>multiplication.  The only exceptions are the && and || operators, where
>left operand can short circuit the right.
>
>  Personally, I would find such a definition about as useful as computed
>gotos... (Not at all)

Oh, but it *is* useful!  What is the value of the following code
fragment?

  int n = 4;

  (++n) * (--n);

If the first operand to * is treated first, the answer is 20.  If the
second operand to * is treated first, the answer is 12.  

-- Andrew <amgreene@mit.edu> | .sigs are for people with bandwidth to burn