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From: jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao)
Newsgroups: net.lang,net.lang.c
Subject: Re: structured assembler (BASIC)  [Really: C builtin functions?]
Message-ID: <375@hadron.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Apr-86 00:55:02 EST
Article-I.D.: hadron.375
Posted: Thu Apr 17 00:55:02 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 26-Apr-86 04:01:13 EST
References: <443@3comvax.UUCP> <7900003@ztivax.UUCP> <584@ihdev.UUCP> <6584@utzoo.UUCP>
Reply-To: jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao)
Organization: Hadron, Inc., Fairfax, VA
Lines: 17
Keywords: BASIC, C, operator, function
Xref: watmath net.lang:2392 net.lang.c:8724
Summary: ops  a r e  funcs.

In article <6584@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) writes:
>[unattributed]
>> ... but sizeof qualifies as a builtin function, 
>> even though it is a compile-time function vs run-time.   Anyone disagree?
>Fraid so.  Sizeof is an *operator*, which can (but does not have to be)
>invoked with a function-like syntax.  ...

Any operator which maps its args into a unique value in its range
defines an operation which is a function.  Just because you can
say a + b doesn't mean that (plus a b) [resp., plus(a, b)] is not
a function.  Similarly, sizeof(i), whether or not you use parens
(and I always do) is an operator which, of course, is a function.

Were you talking about details of implementation, perhaps?
-- 

	Joe Yao		hadron!jsdy@seismo.{CSS.GOV,ARPA,UUCP}