Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!uwvax!speedy!engber
From: engber@speedy.cs.wisc.edu (Mike Engber)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: what the heck is "reentrant"?
Summary: static variables make a function non-reentrant
Message-ID: <6100@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Date: 5 Aug 88 15:15:52 GMT
References: <730049@hpcilzb.HP.COM> <104700046@p.cs.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@spool.cs.wisc.edu
Reply-To: engber@speedy.cs.wisc.edu (Mike Engber)
Organization: U of Wisconsin CS Dept
Lines: 16

In article <104700046@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>Here are a few common ways to make something NON-reentrant:
>...

An even simpler way to make a funtion NON-reentrant is to use
static variables.

Sometimes this is desired, like with a random number generator.

I've also heard that a lot of old Fortran progams rely on the fact that
their compilers do not generate reentrant code (i.e. they rely on all
variables being static) and that this is the main obsticle keeping the
Fortran standard from allowing recursion.

-ME