Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!sugar!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.fortran
Subject: Re: Fortran versus C for numerical analysis
Message-ID: <1484@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 13 Sep 88 13:31:17 GMT
References: <410@marob.MASA.COM> <3445@lanl.gov>
Organization: SCADA
Lines: 23

In article <3445@lanl.gov>, jlg@lanl.gov (Jim Giles) writes:
> Why can't C make the above rule part of the standard and have done with it?

Because putting it in doesn't enhance the utility of the language? You
can't possibly outlaw every peice of bad progframming practice. That
way lies ADA.

> C doesn't
> outlaw aliased arrays either (thgat's why dynamically allocated multi-
> dimensional arrays don't optimize well in C - they are implemented as
> an array of pointers which _can_ point to aliased areas of memory).

You mean dynamically sized arrays. Dynamically allocated but statically
sized arrays are implemented like any other array.

> This is, by the way, what I mean when I say that C doesn't have the
> concept of array (that is, a one or more dimensional collection of
> data of identical type, no part of which is aliased to any other part).

Sure it does. You just can't size it dynamically.
-- 
Peter da Silva  `-_-'  Ferranti International Controls Corporation.
"Have you hugged  U  your wolf today?"            peter@ficc.uu.net