[TUHS] v7 K&R C

[Larry McVoy]

I hate enums.  I thought they would be type checked and they are just ints.
I love C but enums suck.

On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 12:54:27PM +1000, Rob Pike wrote:
> Another debate at the time was caused by a disagreement between pcc and cc
> regarding enums: are they a type or just a way to declare constant? I
> remember getting annoyed by pcc not letting me declare a constant with an
> enum and use it as an int. I protested to scj and dmr and after some to-ing
> and fro-ing Steve changed pcc to treat them as constants.
> 
> Not sure it was the right decision, but C desperately wanted a non-macro
> way to define a constant. I'd probably argue the same way today. The real
> lesson is how propinquity affects progress.
> 
> -rbo
> 
> 
> On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 12:51 PM Rob Pike <robpike at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > The ability to call a function pointer fp with the syntax fp() rather than
> > (*fp)() came rather late, I think at Bjarne's suggestion or example. Pretty
> > sure it was not in v7 C, as you observe.
> >
> > Convenient though the shorthand may be, it always bothered me as
> > inconsistent and misleading. (I am pretty sure I used it sometimes
> > regardless.)
> >
> > -rob
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 12:48 PM Adam Thornton <athornton at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >>
> >>
> >> On Apr 24, 2020, at 7:37 PM, Charles Anthony <charles.unix.pro at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 7:00 PM Adam Thornton <athornton at gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>> This doesn???t like the function pointer.
> >>>
> >>
> >>> $ cc -c choparg.c
> >>> choparg.c:11: Call of non-function
> >>>
> >>> Perhaps:
> >>
> >>     (*fcn)(arg);
> >>
> >>
> >> We have a winner!
> >>
> >> Also, Kartik, dunno where it is on the net, but if you install a v7
> >> system, /usr/src/cmd/c
> >>
> >> Adam
> >>
> >>

-- 
---
Larry McVoy            	     lm at mcvoy.com             http://www.mcvoy.com/lm