use of if (!cptr) and if (cptr), where cptr is a *

Dave Paulson dpaulso at ark1.nswc.navy.mil
Sat Jul 22 07:34:53 AEST 1989


In article <14580 at dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> ari at eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ari Halberstadt) writes:
>[...]
>
>One place I've found the comma operator to be very useful is when an error
>must be handled and an error code returned from a function:
>	if (error)
>		return(perror("it failed"), FALSE);
>This saves the nuisance of using braces and two statements.

 I don't usually like to complain about other people's coding
preferences, but this just struck a nerve.

 This is just plain ugly.  When *I* see a comma operator, I tend to think
of two things being done in parallel, so the impression I get when
reading this segment is different from what is really going on.
 Besides, what's so doggone hard about adding a couple extra
braces and semi-colons?  

Oh well, back to my cage.



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