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From: mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Auto variable with sizeof == 0
Message-ID: <644@mcgill-vision.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Feb-87 01:36:04 EST
Article-I.D.: mcgill-v.644
Posted: Wed Feb 11 01:36:04 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 13-Feb-87 06:23:55 EST
References: <4114@brl-adm.ARPA> <5258@mimsy.UUCP> <409@mipos3.UUCP>
Organization: McGill University, Montreal
Lines: 32

In article <409@mipos3.UUCP>, pinkas@mipos3.UUCP (Israel Pinkas) writes:
> In article <5258@mimsy.UUCP> chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) writes:
>> In article <4114@brl-adm.ARPA> escott%deis.uci.edu@icsg.uci.edu (Scott Menter) writes:
>>> ... is there any reason why you should be able to declare an array
>>> with zero elements as an automatic variable?

Uniformity.  Note that this, ie [0], is not the same as [].

>> Why not?  [...] no members of that array are accessible:  Valid
>> subscripts are in the range [0..0).

It doesn't even occupy any storage (at least it does, zero bytes of
it), so sure, why not?

> Wrong.  There are no valid subscripts to the array.

That is what Chris meant (I'm sure).  Mathematicians use square
brackets to denote a closed interval end and parentheses to denote an
open end, so that [1..10) would indicate those x for which 1<=x<10.
This is arguably inconsistent when both ends are the same value, but I,
at least, found his meaning perfectly clear anyway.

(Generally, if you disagree with Chris about a point of fact (as
opposed to opinion), check your beliefs, assumptions, and understanding
of his posting very carefully; he's usually right.)

					der Mouse

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