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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: short circuit evaluation
Message-ID: <7610@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Feb-87 22:49:26 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.7610
Posted: Mon Feb  2 22:49:26 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 2-Feb-87 22:49:26 EST
References: <425@bobkat.UUCP> <102600001@datacube>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 14

> I did ask Dennis about [short-circuiting of multiplies with a 0 operand]
> ... His reply, as I recall it, was
> roughly "I think it is defensible in principle, but it caused so many
> complaints that newer versions of the compiler don't do it".

I should add that X3J11 has come down quite firmly on the pragmatic side
of this issue.  With the obvious exceptions of && and friends, which are
explicitly short-circuited, the compiler is not permitted to leave out
side effects of expressions.  (Personally, as you might have gathered from
my earlier posting, I like the purist approach to this one, but I realize
how much havoc it could cause...)
-- 
Legalize			Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
freedom!			{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry