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From: dwp@k.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Doug Philips)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: lint question
Keywords: return values ignorable
Message-ID: <3993@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 10 Jan 89 18:00:44 GMT
References: <491@babbage.acc.virginia.edu> <9322@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 19


gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn ) writes:
:Note the use of a (void) cast to explicitly discard an unused
:function value.  This should not be done lightly; if properly used,
:it indicates that the programmer realized that the function returns
:a value but that it is not necessary in this particular instance to
:use the value.  This will shut lint up, but that should not be the
:prime motivation for using the cast!

Actually, my prime motivation for using it IS to shut up lint.
Strcpy and strcat return values that I almost never care about.  Lint
doesn't understand the "return value for the convenience of sometimes
having it" notion.  Perhaps this is a candidate for another SLM like
'vstrcat'?? ;-)

-- 
Doug Philips                  "All that is gold does not glitter,
Carnegie-Mellon University       Not all those who wander are lost..."
dwp@cs.cmu.edu                     -J.R.R. Tolkien
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