Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!usc!nunki.usc.edu!jeenglis
From: jeenglis@nunki.usc.edu (Joe English)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: the Telephone Test (was: Re: case sensitivity)
Message-ID: <3582@nunki.usc.edu>
Date: 24 Apr 89 00:44:38 GMT
References: <19925@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>
Reply-To: jeenglis@nunki.usc.edu (Joe English)
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 59


djones@megatest.UUCP (Dave Jones) writes:

> [about the "telephone test"]

This reminds me of a question I had a while ago
but never asked anyone who would know...  How does
one "pronounce" C?  I know that Lisp and Forth
have certain pronunciation rules (caddr ==>
"ka-duh-derr," etc.), but are there any guidelines
for C?

Some of the rules I use are: 

* is pronounced "pointer" in a declaration, "star"
in an expression;

char is pronounced "character," (as opposed to
"car" or "care;" I assume that the listener knows 
how to spell it);

a[stuff] is "a sub-stuff;"

foo(a,b,c) is "foo of a comma b comma c" or just
"foo a b c" if foo is known to be a function
(I leave the punctuation implicit whenever reasonable);

!, &&, and || are pronounced "not," "and," and
"or," respectively, as are ~, &, and | except that
in the latter case I prefix the entire expression
with "bitwise," unless both logical and bitwise
operators are used in which case I write the whole
thing on a piece of paper;

void (*funtab[MAX])(int,int,char *) is pronounced
"funtab is an array, MAX long, of pointers to 
function returning void, taking int, int and 
character pointer."

These seem to work pretty well (assuming my
audience also speaks C) for all but really
complicated expressions.

What do other people do?  In particular, what is
the real name of this -> thing?  How does one
pronounce highly abbreviated standard library
functions?  (To read strrchr like it's spelled
sounds like you're clearing your throat...)  Is
malloc "em-allock" or "mallock?"  (I prefer the
latter) and is fprintf "eff-prinf-eff" or
"phprintph?"  (I prefer the former, to avoid
sounding like a Don Martin sound effect...)

Or is this a stupid question?


--Joe English

  jeenglis@nunki.usc.edu