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From: clark@calma.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: indent bug
Message-ID: <707@calma.uucp>
Date: Sat, 14-Nov-87 12:21:24 EST
Article-I.D.: calma.707
Posted: Sat Nov 14 12:21:24 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 20-Nov-87 23:38:27 EST
References: <10266@brl-adm.ARPA>
Reply-To: clark@calma.UUCP (Al Clark)
Organization: GE/Calma Co., R&D Systems Engineering, Milpitas, CA
Lines: 29

In article <10266@brl-adm.ARPA> eichelbe@nadc.arpa (J. Eichelberger) writes:
>We are running 4.3 BSD UNIX on a VAX 11/780.
>
>The following bug has been found when "indent" was run.  No flags were
>specified.  Just "indent input.c output.c".
 (detailed description deleted 
>Notice the change in the line "i=!i;" to "i != i;".  I know the workaround,
 (more deleted)
>   Jon Eichelberger
>   eichelbe@NADC.ARPA

I am only speculating, but the "=!"  to  "!="  change  may  be  a
feature,  not  a bug.  For example, the old form of "+=" and "-="
was "=+" and "=-".   At least for some compilers, the older  form
is still honored, presumably in the name of backwards compatabil-
ity.  In those cases  expressions  like  "a=-1"  get  treated  as
though they were "a-=1".  I always leave a space between an equal
sign and a following operator, just to be sure.  It is  interest-
ing  that indent, at least in this case, treated the "=!" just as
the "backwards compatible" compiler  would,  but  makes  the  in-
terpretation  obvious. So I would think of it as a feature, not a
bug, in that it makes the  output  non-ambiguous.   (In  passing,
note that the "=+" construct is still honored by all the versions
of "bc" that I use, and is the only construct honored by the "bc"
in my Unisoft sytem.)
-- 
Al Clark - {ucbvax,sun,...}calma!clark
                        ...calma!gewest!aclark!al
NOTE: The calma account is a courtesy account; I am not employed by calma.