Compilers and programming style (was Re: A question of style)

[Bret Orsburn]

In article <1989Dec31.153241.16479 at gdt.bath.ac.uk> exspes at gdr.bath.ac.uk (P E Smee) writes:
>>
>>	*ptr;		/* Should be (*ptr)(), of course */
>
>while valid as written, clearly has no effects and no side effects.

Let me get something clear: are_you/is_anybody claiming that *all* isolated
pointer dereferences are inherently worthless (hence, fair game for whining
compilers), or would you reserve this judgement just for the special case of
an isolated pointer-to-function?

If you are making the former, stronger claim, I could cite a lot of counter-
examples from the realm of Systems Programming (read: Pounding on Hardware).

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bret at codonics.com
uunet!codonics!bret                 C Is Not Baroque
Bret Orsburn                          Don't Fix It