Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!yale!cmcl2!brl-adm!adm!TLIMONCE%DREW.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
From: TLIMONCE%DREW.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: a couple quickies
Message-ID: <11140@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: 6 Jan 88 19:05:35 GMT
Sender: news@brl-adm.ARPA
Lines: 75

My understanding is that the drafts and the actual standard are released
into the public domain.  Correct?  If so, would their be any problems
with someone sending copies of the next draft electronically?  If I get
a hard-copy, I can scan it into an ASCII file and send it to anyone who
asks.  Of course, I don't have $60 right now nor the time to send away
for it (and find the right address, etc).  Does ANSI take plastic? :-)
Would anyone want to split for it?  Would anyone be willing to just
send me a copy and I'll scan it and send it electronically back to them
:-) ?

I'll keep dreaming.

(new topic)
Someone asked people to grep for noalias to see (informally) how many
problems it would cause.  I came up with nothing.  I think a good reason
(well, not a good reason, but a reason.  Well, maybe a sub-good reason...)
for this is that many programmers were taught to have boolean variables
be "naturally positive".  This means that instead of a not_done variable
I was encouraged to use "done" so that my loops would be repeat... until
done, instead of repeat... until not not_done (which less readable).

Besides a small (theoretical) reduction in "noalias" conflicting with
current code, this would make me more comfortable with "excl" or
"exclusive" as a keyword instead of "noalias".  Maybe someone has an
even better suggestion that "exclusive".  Also, this is the first keyword
which is a compound word (I think).  Is this a trend?  A rose is, by any
other name, still as sweet... but I'd prefer a nice name.  :-)

(new topic)
Looking for a MakeMake routine?  The new issue of Dr. Dobb's Journal (Jan
'88) on page 61 has an advert for VersiMake which claims to re-build the
makefile for you.  Summit Information Systems, Inc., 73 East Lane,
Willingboro, NJ 08046, 1-800-334-4096.
(I am not related to Dr. Dobb's Journal other than that I buy it from my
local computer store each month.  I am not related to Summit Information
Systems, Inc. other than I saw their advert today in DDJ.  I have not
tried it and I can not vouch for it.)

(new topic)
"Is ANSI C good for systems programming?" someone asked.  I think so.  In
fact, with prototypes, one should expect more reliable programs.  I don't
think that anything thing ANSI added will be prohibiting systems
programming.

(new topic)
Does anyone use Aztec C on an Amiga?  Does anyone have their new update?
I'm waiting for mine.  They claim that their new source-level debugger is
better than CodeView.  I still want to know when they will add ANY of the
ANSI stuff to the package.  I paid a lot of money for mine and I would
like to see their updates have more than just speed improvements and bug
removals.

(new topic)
Question: Under ANSI C,
                    for (i = 0; i == 100; i++) foo(&i);
If foo() does something like: "*i = 0" will this loop ever complete?
I hope this is classified as undefined. I have seen compilers (mostly
pascal) that notice when a loop will execute an exact number of times and
create a hidden counter that does a count-down to zero to speed up the
code (compare-to-zero is usually a fast instruction).  As a side-effect,
changing the loop-variable (even as foo does) has no effect as to the
number of iterations.  ...or is this "too pascal"?

(new topic)
Sorry that I am putting all these little things into one big message.
My system is moving net-access from one machine to another so there is
no access while the move is going on.  Is it better to combine all these
messages or send out a couple short ones?


                              T. Limoncelli
  Drew U/Box 1060/Madison NJ 07940     Bitnet: tlimonce@drew.BITNET
  Disclaimer: These are my views, not my employer or Drew Univesity.
             "View this in mirror to see the secret message"
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