Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!amdcad!ames!umd5!purdue!i.cc.purdue.edu!j.cc.purdue.edu!pur-ee!iuvax!bsu-cs!dhesi
From: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: parens honored
Message-ID: <1808@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Date: 8 Jan 88 21:43:19 GMT
References: <6829@brl-smoke.ARPA> <2845@zeus.TEK.COM> <6860@brl-smoke.ARPA> <12211@orchid.waterloo.edu> <6968@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1798@bsu-cs.UUCP> <6986@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Reply-To: dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi)
Organization: CS Dept, Ball St U, Muncie, Indiana
Lines: 18
Keywords: ANSI C standard

In article <6986@brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) 
writes:
>In article <1798@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
>>Isn't it true though that in pre-ANSI K&R C, one could force a certain
>>order of evaluation through the use of temporary variables, thus
>>getting the best of both worlds?  ANSI C takes away this ability from
>>the user.
>
>How so?  I don't think this has changed one whit.

Pre-ANSI K&R C allowed the user to pretty much use parentheses anywhere
without inhibiting optimization.  Yet, when necessary, the user could
force a specific evaluation order.  ANSI C preserves only the second
option--the user can no longer (on a machine that checks for overflow)
use parens with wild abandon.  It is this ability to get "the best of
both worlds" that ANSI C takes away.
-- 
Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!dhesi