Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pdn!boake2!jc3b21!fgd3
From: fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Lattice C 5.0
Message-ID: <532@jc3b21.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 88 02:47:13 GMT
References: <8812192102.AA25347@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: St. Petersburg Jr. College, FL
Lines: 42

From article <8812192102.AA25347@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>, by dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon):
> 
> 	You can't return an error code from main() via return.  The only
> way to return an error code is with exit() or _exit().  returning from main()
> always generates an error code of 0.  This is why main() might be declared 
> void.  Why?  Lots of people let main() fall through to exit a program, which
> means the 'return value' would otherwise be garbage.

     Well, I used to write programs like this:

main()
{
     if (error)
	exit(error_code);
     return(0);
}

because main defaults to an int if you don't declare it differently and
Lattice complained if I let it drop through without a return statement.  It
took me a little while to figure out why I couldn't do it under version
5.0.  Then I changed my style to this:

void
main()
{
     if (error)
	exit(error_code);
     exit(0);
}

It was really no problem to make the change and I'm pleased to have the
compiler tighten up on questionable practices.  Version 4 also defined
main() as a void function in stdlib.h, but the compiler didn't care if I
did it differently.

--Fabbian Dufoe
  350 Ling-A-Mor Terrace South
  St. Petersburg, Florida  33705
  813-823-2350

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