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From: alexis@reed.UUCP (Alexis Dimitriadis)
Newsgroups: net.bizarre
Subject: Re: Bizarre Code
Message-ID: <1876@reed.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 7-Sep-85 06:41:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: reed.1876
Posted: Sat Sep  7 06:41:09 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 9-Sep-85 04:04:31 EDT
References: <490@moncol.UUCP> <593@grkermi.UUCP> <194@laidbak.UUCP>
Reply-To: alexis@reed.UUCP (Alexis Dimitriadis)
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 35
Summary: 

> >>Ulp! By any chance did this FORTRAN let you change the value of a constant
> >>by passing it to a subroutine, as in:
> >>
> >>		CALL FOO(2)
> >>		.
> >>		.
> >>		SUBROUTINE FOO(I)
> >>		I=I + 2
> >>		RETURN
> >>		END
> >>

Now that we all had our laughs at the stupidity of FORTRAN, try running
the following code through your favorite C compiler:
---------------
char * yes()
{
	return "yes";
}
main()
{
	strcpy(yes(), "no");
	puts(yes());
}
---------------
Sure enough, it prints "no".  (Unless you make the data section read-only,
of course, which will give you a _run_time_ error).
- Alexis
-- 
_______________________________________________
  As soon as I get a full time job, the opinions expressed above
will attach themselves to my employer, who will never be rid of
them again.
				alexis @ reed
    {decvax,ihnp4,ucbcad,uw-beaver}!tektronix!reed.UUCP