Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att-cb!att-ih!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1 From: nevin1@ihlpf.ATT.COM (00704a-Liber) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: strcpy wars, jeez! A proposed resolution. Message-ID: <4348@ihlpf.ATT.COM> Date: 8 Apr 88 20:43:08 GMT References: <7712@apple.Apple.Com> <7485@brl-smoke.ARPA> <10731@mimsy.UUCP> <7506@brl-smoke.ARPA> <4251@hoptoad.uucp> <6286@dhw68k.cts.com> <4215@ihlpf.ATT.COM> <6476@dhw68k.cts.com> <4309@ihlpf.ATT.COM> <8410@sol.ARPA> Reply-To: nevin1@ihlpf.UUCP (00704a-Liber,N.J.) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 16 In article <8410@sol.ARPA> quiroz@cs.rochester.edu (Cesar Quiroz) writes: >Before we get too excited about the purity of functional bahaviors, >let's remember that strcpy is used (in the overwheming majority of >cases) *to perform side-effects*. Only if you are using the LISP definition of 'side effect' and not the definition I presented. In LISP, the 'purpose' of calling a function is to return a value, and the 'side effects' are what actions it did to get that value. In C, however, these definitions are reversed. Functions in C are called to perform an action. (This is simply a mindset.) -- _ __ NEVIN J. LIBER ..!ihnp4!ihlpf!nevin1 (312) 510-6194 ' ) ) "The secret compartment of my ring I fill / / _ , __o ____ with an Underdog super-energy pill." / (_