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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Function prototypes (was: miscellaneous unrelated stuff)
Message-ID: <8042@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-May-87 17:16:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.8042
Posted: Tue May 19 17:16:36 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 19-May-87 17:16:36 EDT
References: <18346@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 16

> Henry Spencer claims that use of function prototypes is dangerous
> because of what may happen if a function prototype is missing in one
> environment, but present in another.  Lightspeed C for the Macintosh
> has an option that causes it to require function prototypes for all
> external functions.  Seems to me that use of this option would prevent
> the type of disaster envisioned by Henry.

Unfortunately, it's not as helpful as one would like:  the dangerous
problems are the ones where the prototype for xxx is being picked up from
a header file, and you assume that the header file is the same in both
environments, and it's not.  If *both* environments have such a compiler
option, fine; the point is that successful compilation with such an option
in one environment tells you nothing about what's going to happen in another.
-- 
"The average nutritional value    Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
of promises is roughly zero."     {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry