Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!ukma!hsdndev!cmcl2!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Short circuit evaluation/expression rearrangement (2nd summary)
Message-ID: <16283@smoke.brl.mil>
Date: 28 May 91 10:02:25 GMT
References: <1991May27.113628.26880@ucthpx.uct.ac.za>
Organization: U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, APG, MD.
Lines: 13

In article <1991May27.113628.26880@ucthpx.uct.ac.za> gram@uctcs.uucp (Graham Wheeler) writes:
>From: worley@compass.COM
>... in "a + b + c",
>the first addition must be performed before the second, because it
>associates as "(a + b) + c", showing that the second addition has as
>an argument the result of the first.

The above is incorrect.  A conforming implementation is obliged to
perform the operations so that it doesn't create an exception where
one would not have occurred in evaluating the expression strictly
according to the precedence implied by the grammar, but within
those constraints it may perform the additions in any order.  To
force an order of evaluation (in Standard C), you must use parentheses.