Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ncar!noao!arizona!mike
From: mike@arizona.edu (Mike Coffin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: standards development process
Message-ID: <4960@megaron.arizona.edu>
Date: 15 Apr 88 16:30:29 GMT
References: <1510@se-sd.sandiego.NCR.COM>
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 24

From article <1510@se-sd.sandiego.NCR.COM>, by rns@se-sd.sandiego.NCR.COM (Rick Schubert):
> ...  And for
> this choice I say: "feel free to write programs that do not contain the
> token 'noalias'."
> 
> Rick Schubert (rns@se-sd.sandiego.NCR.COM)

Two points:  First, you can't ignore noalias --- the interfaces to the
standard library functions are liberally sprinkled with with "noalias"
and "const noalias".  Unless you want to rewrite <stdio>, you had better
understand noalias.  Second, the reason that C is a beautiful example of
language design is that the ratio of power to complexity is so high.
Noalias adds nothing to the expressive power of the language, while
hugely increasing its complexity.






-- 

Mike Coffin				mike@arizona.edu
Univ. of Ariz. Dept. of Comp. Sci.	{allegra,cmcl2,ihnp4}!arizona!mike
Tucson, AZ  85721			(602)621-4252