Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!umix!umich!mibte!gamma!ulysses!andante!alice!ark
From: ark@alice.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Prototypes
Message-ID: <7752@alice.UUCP>
Date: 19 Mar 88 16:13:04 GMT
References: <2550049@hpisod2.HP.COM> <7412@brl-smoke.ARPA> <3351@chinet.UUCP> <25699@cca.CCA.COM>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Liberty Corner NJ
Lines: 22

Here is one sensible way to deal with prototypes:

Suppose you are writing a function to be used by others.
Let's call it foo().  Declare it in foo.h:

	extern double foo (int, char *, long);

When you write foo.c, be sure to include foo.h:

	#include "foo.h"

	double foo (int n, char *p, long size)
	{
		/* stuff */
	}

Indeed, you have stated foo's signature twice.
However, the compiler should reject an attempt to
compile foo.c if the two instances do not match.

Now a user who includes foo.h will automatically
get the right declaration.