Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!rutgers!apple!oliveb!sun!rushforth!kcr
From: kcr%rushforth@Sun.COM (Kevin Rushforth)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.games.bugs
Subject: Re: Galactic Bloodshed compiler error
Message-ID: <104342@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 11 May 89 17:20:32 GMT
References: <17958@cisunx.UUCP> <2889@cps3xx.UUCP> <808@jura.tcom.stc.co.uk>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: kcr@sun.UUCP (Kevin Rushforth)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 32

In article <808@jura.tcom.stc.co.uk> pjb@htc2.UUCP (Peter J. Bishop) writes:
>the only solution that I could come up with to solve it was to change the
>lines of the form:
>
>	p->popn *= .80;
>
>and change them to read:
>
>	p->popn = p->popn * .80;
>
>Hope this solves your problem.
>BTW Does anyone know why this solves the problem? Or have I made a mistake in
>the modification?

If this does indeed solve the problem, then your compiler is broken.

If "a" is an lvalue and "b" is an expression, then:

	a *= b;

is identical to:

	a = a * (b);

except for the fact that "a" is evaluated (e.g. for side effects) only once.

-- 
Kevin C. Rushforth                   | "If winning is not important,
Sun Microsystems                     |  then commander, why keep score?"
                                     |              - Lt. Worf
ARPA: kcr@sun.com                    |
UUCP: <most-backbone-sites>!sun!kcr  |