Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Null revisited (briefly)
Keywords: NULL
Message-ID: <1095@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 1 Mar 89 18:48:49 GMT
References: <13068@steinmetz.ge.com> <102@servio.UUCP> <10138@socslgw.csl.sony.JUNET> <1783@dlvax2.datlog.co.uk>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 28

>>When you assign 'x' to a character, you are assigning an int to a
>>character.  The reader knows that the type mismatch was intentional.
>
>Not if he knows the C language.  A single character written within
>single quotes is a *character constant*.  This isn't an int.

Wanna bet?  The May 13, 1988 dpANS says:

	3.1.3.4 Character constants

	...

	Description

	   An integer character constant is a sequence of one or more
	multibyte characters enclosed in single quotes, as in 'x' or
	'ab'.  A wide character constant is the same except prefixed by
	the letter L. ...

	Semantics

	   An integer character constant has type "int". ...

>'\0' is a special case to permit the representation of non-graphical
>characters (also newline, tab, backslash, return, etc.) and is not
>the same as 0, which is an integer constant.

Wrong.  '\0' *is* the same as 0.