In a message dated 11/11/99 8:38:15 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>While not denying the validity of the cautions that Mike Westerfield
>provided, the technique below seems to work well with the MetroWerks
>compiler. It also seems to work well with the Borland and Microsoft PC
>compilers I've tried it with, going back before Standard C to K&R C.
Maybe I'm missing your point, but if not, you've sure missed mine.
The number of compilers a particular illegal coding practice works with is
completely immaterial. As a professional programmer using a language, one
should know and follow the standard. It's understandable in a language as
complex and arcane as C that even highly competent professionals will miss
fine points about the standard. It's understandable that one might ignore a
standard in order to accomplish a very particular action on a specific
machine, especially if the code includes conditional compilation statements
to insure that the action is only taken on a specific machine, or to generate
errors on other compilers so the code is rechecked on other machines by a
competent programmer. C is designed specifically to allow a knowledgeable
professional to do exactly this sort of thing.
It's not understandable to me for professional programmers to ignore
standards they are aware of for no other reason than "it works on the
compiler I tried."
Mike Westerfield
