confusion with char *a and char a[NUM]

Chris Torek chris at mimsy.umd.edu
Thu Dec 6 02:55:17 AEST 1990


In article <14638 at smoke.brl.mil> gwyn at smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>ARRAYS ARE NOT POINTERS.

(Which is of course correct.)

A few days ago, on one lunch venture, someone wanted to stop at the
campus bookstore and search for a particular book on graphics.  While
he was doing that, I took a random sample of the `C books' shelf and
read what each had to say about pointers and arrays.

I had time for only two books.  They were both wrong in at least one
specific, and both gave the wrong idea.

Part of the problem, then, with people's understanding of arrays and
pointers in C is that there has been a profusion of books about C,
many of which continue to promote myths about pointers and arrays.
(Perhaps there should be a note to this effect in the FAQ list.)
Remember:

	Being in print does not make it true.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at cs.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris



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