[TUHS] v7 K&R C

[Larry McVoy]

What Clem said, that is precisely how I feel.  I'd be fully for them if they
fully type checked but without that, yeah, cpp is fine, enums are just a
distraction.


On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 11:30:26PM -0400, Clem Cole wrote:
> Amen bro.  I always felt that they got added because pascal had something
> that C didn???t, and yet it really was not the same.  I always felt they were
> a feature that was only partly implemented and if they were not going  to
> be fully typed then just leave them out and use cpp like we had always done
> before.
> 
> On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 11:05 PM Larry McVoy <lm at mcvoy.com> wrote:
> 
> > 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
> >
> -- 
> Sent from a handheld expect more typos than usual

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