Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!pyramid!prls!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Variable argument lists.
Message-ID: <2851@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: 17 May 88 14:19:56 GMT
References: <14139@brl-adm.ARPA> <504@sas.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Ashton-Tate Corporation, East Hartford Development Center
Lines: 14

In article <504@sas.UUCP> bts@sas.UUCP (Brian T. Schellenberger) writes:
>Thus, I seriously doubt that it "most of the power of the
>variable argument list is wasted."

Actually, I think the original statement is correct (at least if "most" is
interpreted as "the majority of").  But variable argument lists are in the
nature of a frill, not a necessity.  Even printf could be replaced quite
adequately by a series of calls, one to output each item or bit of
intervening text.  Such a protocol seems horrible the first time you
encounter it, but after just a little experience you realize that it is not
appreciably worse than the other approach.
-- 

Frank Adams                           ihnp4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Ashton-Tate          52 Oakland Ave North         E. Hartford, CT 06108