Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site asgb.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!wjh12!genrad!decvax!decwrl!amd!fortune!hpda!hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!bmcg!asgb!mike From: mike@asgb.UUCP Newsgroups: net.lang.c Subject: Notes on the ANSI standard Message-ID: <553@asgb.UUCP> Date: Wed, 17-Oct-84 09:58:07 EDT Article-I.D.: asgb.553 Posted: Wed Oct 17 09:58:07 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 20-Oct-84 08:02:04 EDT Organization: Burroughs Corporation, Boulder Colo. Lines: 36 <> A couple thoughts on the proposed ANSI C standard. I'm reading from the September 12, 1984 draft. (1) I too must throw in my vote against the 6 character limit for external names. It's time that this vestige of the 60's be thrown out. I think previous discussions in this newsgroup have covered the subject adequately. (2) Section 4.1.3 states: "With one exception, a member of a union object may not be inspected unless the value of the object has been assigned using that same member." HOLY!! Whatever happened to overlaying values of differing types? One of the more handy uses of unions is overlaying bitfields with an integer so that the bits can be twiddled individually, but the integer can be used for block operations on all the bits. I've also used similar techniques for decoding bit fields of devices like a Summagraphic Bitpad, or several mouses. I will grant that this is not good practice for writing portable code. But to have these practices forbidden or enforced by the compiler is totally unreasonable, especially for a systems implementation language! (In implementation, enforcing this restriction seems pretty cumbersome.) Mike Rosenlof Burroughs Advanced Systems Group ...hplabs!sdcrdcf!bmcg!asgb!mike