Re: question about linker

Bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:

On 07/12/2024 21:00, David Brown wrote:
>

<snip purely subjective opinion on unrealistic code>

>
You mean that /real/ example where a function needed a type written 6 times
instead of once? OK.

I've always wondered why prototypes in C did not simply use the existing
syntax for declarations.  After all, it was right there in K&R C, just
outside the parentheses:

f(m, n, s)
int m, n;
char *s;
{ ... }

could have become

f(int m, n; char *s)
{ ... }

rather than

f(int m, int n, char *s)
{ ... }

Does anyone know if there even /was/ a reason?

OK, I know the declarations were not /always/ there.  Implicit int meant
that one could write

f(m, n, s)
char *s;
{ ... }

but that could also have been preserved by allowing

f(m, n; char *s)
{ ... }


--
Ben.