Re: how cast works?

On 2024-08-09, Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> wrote:

Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> writes:

On 2024-08-09, Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> wrote:

Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> writes:
[...]

It almost makes sense to speak of "implicit cast" (i.e. coercion) in C,
because of what happens implicitly being so unsafe.

>
I disagree, because that's not what "cast" means.

>
"cast" means to (try to) project a value into another type.

>
*Looks around* sorry, are we still in comp.lang.c?
>
"Cast" has a number of meanings in contexts outside C, applicable to
dice, eyes, fishing lines, ballots, magic spells, actors, liquid metal,
and broken limbs, among other things.  In C, it means what the standard
says it means, even if some people misuse it to refer to implicit
conversions.
>

In C though, the nuance is something like "conversion that is mediated
by the presence of the cast notation", where "mediated" includes the
possibility that the cast notation has no effect at all
(e.g. 2 + (int) 3).

>
I hadn't noticed before that the standard does have a formal definition
of the term "cast", as well as "explicit conversion" and "implicit
conversion".

Based on surveying all you quoted, I basically nailed it above.

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