Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!cmcl2!lanl!lambda!jlg
From: jlg@lambda.UUCP (Jim Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: NOT Educating FORTRAN programmers to use C
Message-ID: <14260@lambda.UUCP>
Date: 5 Mar 90 21:31:45 GMT
References: <5055@scolex.sco.COM>
Lines: 28

From article <5055@scolex.sco.COM>, by seanf@sco.COM (Sean Fagan):
> [...]
> 	int a[100];
> 	int b[100];
> 	void foo(int x, int y, int z) {
> 		/* do whatever with a and b */
> 	}
> 
> the compiler does *not* have to worry about aliasing.  [...]
> [...]            Voila:  no aliasing problems.

Please try to read the thread before making rash claims.  This thread of
the newsgroup had _already_ discarded global arrays as being insufficiently
general.  No one doubts that global arrays are not an aliasing problem in
C.  No one said they were.  No one wants them to be.  No one considers
making all their arrays global (or work only with local arrays, etc.) to 
be an adequate array mechanism.  The only sufficiently general array
manipulation capability involves passing arrays (of different size and
of multiple dimension) as arguments to procedures.  In this respect, C
has an unavoidable aliasing problem.  In this respect, array minipulation
is _missing_ from C.

[Yes, I know.  I'm still beating this issue to death.  But, as I said:
every time I think the issue is resolved - another invalid C claim is
made.  I've only got thirty years until retirement.  I wonder if this
issue will be dead even then.]

J. Giles