Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!rbutterworth
From: rbutterworth@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ray Butterworth)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: volitile
Message-ID: <19001@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 20 May 88 16:56:56 GMT
References: <20345@pyramid.pyramid.com> <502@wsccs.UUCP> <1025@X.UUCP>
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 23

In article <502@wsccs.UUCP>, terry@wsccs.UUCP (Every system needs one) writes:
>   Yes, but why is
> 
>       volitile int foo;
> 
>   better than
> 
>       int foo;    /* VOLITILE*/
> 
>   Except for the optimizer?

It's a lot better simply because "volitile int foo;" will cause the
compiler to generate a syntax error message, while "/*VOLITILE*/"
will be silently ignored.

Saying that you might make typos in news articles but never in
your code isn't good enough.  I make spelling mistakes in both,
and while people reading my articles can correct or ignore them,
I really appreciate it when the compiler notices and complains.

Any system, such as lint's "/*directive*/" or C's "#pragma directive",
that silently ignores the dyrective if it is misspelled is potentially
dangerous.