Re: question about linker

On 07/12/2024 22:18, Bart wrote:

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'd be curious about how you'd write such a function; maybe all your functions only have one parameter, or they are always of mixed types.

Having so many parameters in a function is a sign of a bad interface design - the more parameters, the poorer the design.  Occasionally having 6 parameters might be the best choice in a particular case, but it is going to be rare - most functions have far fewer.  And it's okay if things are a bit awkward or harder to write for something that should be rare, and is rare in practice.
The problem is not so much when defining or declaring the function - it is when /using/ the function.  C does not have named arguments, and it is extremely easy for code calling a function of many parameters to mix them up (especially if they are the same type).
I'd have been quite happy if C had a syntax along the lines of
int foo(int a, b, c, double x, y, z);
for declaring functions.  It can't quite follow the same pattern as for declarations of variables (because then you'd need a semicolon after the "c" above), but it would be close.
But C doesn't have a syntax like that, and the syntax it has is rarely an issue for anyone.