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From: bet@ecsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: C parsing: significance of spaces, and the meaning of "+++"
Message-ID: <2361@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Apr-84 11:20:02 EST
Article-I.D.: ecsvax.2361
Posted: Mon Apr 23 11:20:02 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Apr-84 00:47:53 EST
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Thinking about the recent question "Why does our compiler gag on a program
containing *a/*b but not (*a)/(*b) [the first one starts a comment] brought
to mind the question "Are spaces significant in disambiguating parsing?" In an
effort to come up with a clear example of an ambiguous parse, I came up with
the expression "a+++b". Is that "(a++)+b" or "a+(++b)"? Gazing at The Book,
page 49 (precedence of operators) I note that "++" has higher precedence than
"+", and associates right-to-left. Does that demand the second parse (a+(++b))?
This is beyond me. Unary operators are the cause of it all.

					Bennett Todd
					...{decvax,ihnp4,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!bet