Davidsen's device

[ody]

In article <888 at tub.UUCP> net at tub.UUCP (Oliver Laumann) writes:

| This is quite a common idiom, I have used it lots of times (without the
| syntax error in your example, of course).

  I'm not sure that everyone would agree with that statement... the mail
I got runs about 7:1 with people who found it new and disgusting as
opposed to those who use it all the time (that's scarey, I wouldn't use
it unless there was a good reason). I never claimed more than
independent discovery, so I can ffel hurt that it's not a totally new
idea. There aren't many of those.

| 
| You can even omit the * since it's superfluous.

  Not in portable code it isn't. ANSI made it optional, K&R 1st ed
required it. I personally (opinion here) feel that it makes the code
more readable to include it, so that the reader knows what's going on.
The omission will also break a lot of tools which scan the code and
provide cross index, etc.
	bill davidsen		(davidsen at crdos1.crd.GE.COM)
  {uunet | philabs}!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me