sizeof(function) - preproposal survey

Chris Calabrese[rs] cjc at ulysses.homer.nj.att.com
Tue Feb 16 02:17:59 AEST 1988


In article <11801 at brl-adm.ARPA>, LINNDR%VUENGVAX.BITNET at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU writes:
> I need some help from the readers of comp.lang.c/info-c in preparation
> for making a proposal to X3J11. The gist of my proposal is that the
> sizeof operator, when applied to a function name, would return the
> length of the function rather than the size of a pointer to a function.

How is this possible?  how can the length of a function be determined at
compile time without having compile all the functions dependant upon
the function under consideration first?

What happens when they're in two different files and get compiled
seperately?  What happens if two functions are dependent upon
each other for size information?

Somebody tell me how this is possible?

Another, more interesting possibility is that sizeof return the number
of arguments which the function takes.

Of course, what do we do with the C programs which already use
the current meaning of the sizeof operator on functions?

	Chris Calabrese
	AT&T Bell Labs
	ulysses!cjc



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