Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncr-sd!hp-sdd!hplabs!decwrl!purdue!haven!ncifcrf!nlm-mcs!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: down
Message-ID: <9142@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 11 Dec 88 06:07:21 GMT
References: <gables.352@umigw.miami.edu>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 21

In article <gables.352@umigw.miami.edu> slores%gables.span@umigw.miami.edu (Stanislaw L. Olejniczak) writes:
>	while ( (c = getchar) != EOF)
>		chcnt++ += (c == '\n');

The main problem is that getchar is a function-like macro, requiring
usage of a parenthesized argument list (containing no arguments), i.e.
	getchar()

The next problem is that the result of chcnt++ is not a modifiable
lvalue, so you cannot assign to it.  Split the statement into two
parts.

The final problem is that you say c is a char.  In that case it can
never compare equal to EOF on many systems.  getchar() returns an int,
not a char.

>... told me this would be too complex for a compiler.

Well, if it weren't for the other problems, I would say that any C
compiler that cannot handle expressions that complex is not worth
using.  Seriously!