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From: jpm@bnl.ARPA (John McNamee)
Newsgroups: net.lang.c
Subject: :-) operator
Message-ID: <8393@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 21-Feb-85 03:20:29 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.8393
Posted: Thu Feb 21 03:20:29 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 26-Feb-85 05:17:59 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
Lines: 11

It should be obvious what this would be used for. You place it after an
expression you didnt seriously expect the computer to handle. Usage would
be something like...

	int big[9999999 :-)];

In this case you are telling the compiler that you dont expect it to have
the memory for that array, and that it can pick some random number instead.

Usage after the number 0 could be used as a special case to indicate a null
pointer, since you shouldnt seriously expect that to work on all machines.