Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c:26705 comp.lang.misc:4374
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!ccavax!merriman
From: merriman@ccavax.camb.com
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.misc
Subject: Re: C strongly typed?
Message-ID: <19061.25f68d3f@ccavax.camb.com>
Date: 8 Mar 90 21:50:07 GMT
References: <259@eiffel.UUCP> <1990Mar1.172526.28683@utzoo.uucp> <849@enea.se> <1990Mar7.182230.5517@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: Cambridge Computer Associates, Inc.
Lines: 55

In article <1990Mar7.182230.5517@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
> However, if you write something like:
> 
> 	char *p;
> 	int a;
> 	...
> 	a = p;
> 
> any modern compiler will object.  C's type system is not extensible unless
> you count "struct", but the language is strongly typed -- mixing random
> types is not allowed.

I guess that lets VAX C out as a modern compiler. the following compiles
without complaint:

#include stdio

int i;
char c;
int *ip;
char *cp;

main()

{
i = 700;
c = i;

printf("%d %d\n", i, c);

ip = &i;

cp = ip;

printf("%d %d\n", *cp, *ip);

i = cp;

ip = i;

printf("%d %d\n", *cp, *ip);

}

and produces the following output:

700 -68
-68 700
32 544

Anyone care to explain the last line of output?

BTW, I included the int to char assignment to demonstrate what I consider
to be a really obnoxious and dangerous shortcoming (at least in VAX C).
Do real C compilers allow the same thing, without comment?