Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c:12322 comp.sys.ibm.pc:18637 comp.std.c:341
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!reading!cf-cm!cybaswan!iiit-sh
From: iiit-sh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.std.c
Subject: Re: Function declarations (was: MSC v5.1 Bug???)
Message-ID: <64@cybaswan.UUCP>
Date: 31 Aug 88 13:07:51 GMT
References: <10102@genrad.UUCP> <11879@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <5680@rpp386.UUCP> <356@sdrc.UUCP> <1757@microsoft.UUCP> <371@pigs.UUCP>
Reply-To: iiit-sh@cybaswan.UUCP (Steve Hosgood)
Followup-To: comp.std.c
Organization: Institute for Industrial Information Technology
Lines: 47

In article <1757@microsoft.UUCP> microsof!markro writes:
>..... here is (I believe) the appropriate section from the
>May 88 draft standard (3.5.1, pg 56, lines 19-20):
>
>  "The declaration of an identifier for a function that has block scope
>   shall have no explicit storage-class specifier other than extern."
 
In article <371@pigs.UUCP> haugj@pigs.UUCP (Joe Bob Willie) writes:
>is it too late to get this changed back in the standard?  this seems to
>be a serious mis-feature.  i have used function declarations inside
>of functions to document where a function is used.  now they are telling
>us we can't document static functions in this fashion.
>
>i know this has been discussed before, but what exactly is The Committee
>trying to do to C?  this one change will result in virtually all of the
>code i've written being broken.  [ along with much code i've not written
>but still have to maintain ]  the resulting language will share only the
>name with the original language.

I agree, Joe Bob, I've got the same problem exactly! This had better get
to the the comp.std.c group *now* so they can discuss it before it *is*
too late.

I think the compiler is correct according to the standard, but the standard
is broken. However, the compiler *ought* to produce an error message. After
all, declaring a function static within a block would mean that it would
have to be *defined* within that block in order to be both visible and
usable. However, C has no mechanism for declaring functions within blocks,
so at very least the static declaration should cause an error message to that
effect.

Someone's pinched my K&R, but I'm sure it says that this is a special case
for the reasons I've mentioned above. ANSI have *got* to decide one way or
another, I hope they change lines 19-20, page 56!

I hope no-one objects, but I've directed follow-ups to comp.std.c
Even if ANSI are right, I think you'd agree that this is a standards problem
now, not just MSC.

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Steve Hosgood BSc,                             | Phone (+44) 792 295213
Image Processing and Systems Engineer,         | Fax (+44) 792 295532
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