ANSI C prototypes

[Richard Caley]

In article <3933.27353319 at cc.helsinki.fi> jaakola at cc.helsinki.fi writes:

    It's okay for me to make an include file, where I declare functions that
    are visible to other modules. But consider the following example:

	    static void auxiliary_func(a) /* private helper-function */
	    int a;
	    {
		    ...
	    }

	    void visible_fun(b)
	    int b;
	    {
		    ...
		    auxiliary_func(b+1);   /* should be checked */
		    ...
	    }

    The point is, why should I have to tell the compiler twice the type of
    auxiliary_func?

You don't. In the above case you havn't even told it once. If you
did...
	
	static void auxiliary_func(int a)
	
	{
	...
	}

you wouldn't need to type anything more. Or if you did that would be a
massive compiler misfeature. This even saves you a couple of
characters :-)


    Ok, I could turn off such warnings in Microsoft C 5.1, but this turns
    off some useful checks as a side-effect! Please, Microsoft, make a
    "prototypes-off" switch into Microsoft C for me!

If the compiler really does complain in the case where you give the
full type in the function definition then I agree that the writers had
better start watching out for mobs of irate users coming after them
with pitchforks and flaming torches. Someone must make a working C
compiler for your machine...

--
rjc at uk.ac.ed.cstr