Xref: utzoo comp.lang.c:26650 comp.lang.misc:4352
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.misc
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: C strongly typed?
Message-ID: <1990Mar7.182230.5517@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <259@eiffel.UUCP> <1990Mar1.172526.28683@utzoo.uucp> <849@enea.se>
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 90 18:22:30 GMT

In article <849@enea.se> sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) writes:
>>Modern
>>C is a strongly-typed language by any reasonable definition...
>
>C strongly typed? If I write something like...
>    typedef apple int;
>    typedef orange int;
>    apple a;
>    orange b;
>    ...
>    a = b;
>
>Will a "modern" compiler object?

No, because the somewhat-misnamed "typedef" explicitly declares a synonym,
not a new type.  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.
-- 
MSDOS, abbrev:  Maybe SomeDay |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
an Operating System.          | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu