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From: jdb@mordor.UUCP (John Bruner)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: Re: K&R App A, par. 8 & 8.2, on Declarations, Defaulting.
Message-ID: <4614@mordor.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Jul-84 16:11:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: mordor.4614
Posted: Thu Jul 12 16:11:26 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jul-84 02:20:48 EDT
References: hou3c.664 <180@log-hb.UUCP> <1027@hao.UUCP> <2905@ecsvax.UUCP>
Organization: S-1 Project, LLNL
Lines: 21

Allowing automatic variables to be declared with "x = 1;" instead of
"int x = 1;" can produce ambiguities.  Consider

int *p = &something;			int *p = &something;

func()					func()
{					{
	*p = 0;					int *p = 0;
	return(p);				return(p);
}					}

This should not treat "*p = 0;" as an automatic variable definition;
rather, it must be interpreted as a reference to the global "p".

Also, "int *p = 0;" does not do the same thing as "int *p; *p = 0;".
The first case sets "p" to NULL, the second case sets the integer
pointed-to by (the garbage) pointer "p" to zero.
-- 
  John Bruner (S-1 Project, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
  MILNET: jdb@mordor.ARPA [jdb@s1-c]	(415) 422-0758
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