Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!purdue!decwrl!labrea!sri-unix!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.uucp (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: down
Message-ID: <843@quintus.UUCP>
Date: 12 Dec 88 07:41:09 GMT
References: <gables.352@umigw.miami.edu>
Sender: news@quintus.UUCP
Reply-To: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Inc.
Lines: 22

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

No way is this too complex for a compiler.  It is just plain illegal.
chcnt is a 'long' _variable_ (L-value), but chcnt++ is a 'long' _number_
(R-value).  The first time round, chcnt would be 0, then chcnt++ increments
chcnt to 1 and evaluates to 0.  What would "0 += (c == '\n') mean?

Try
	chcnt++, chcnt += c=='\n';

Better still would be to use a for loop:
	for (chcnt = 0; (c = getchar()) != EOF; chcnt++) {
	    if (c == '\n') chcnt++;
	}
or
	for (chcnt = 0; (c = getchar()) != EOF; chcnt += c == '\n' ? 2 : 1)
	    ;

(Was that really (c = getchar), or was it (c = getchar())?  If the former,
that's wrong too.)