Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!mailrus!iuvax!pur-ee!a.cs.uiuc.edu!m.cs.uiuc.edu!kenny
From: kenny@m.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Unnecessary parenthesis
Message-ID: <4700014@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 5 Jul 88 18:33:00 GMT
References: <326@marob.MASA.COM>
Lines: 19
Nf-ID: #R:marob.MASA.COM:326:m.cs.uiuc.edu:4700014:000:690
Nf-From: m.cs.uiuc.edu!kenny    Jul  5 13:33:00 1988


/* Written  1:29 pm  Jul  2, 1988 by gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA in m.cs.uiuc.edu:comp.lang.c */
>	return(0);	/* one wonders why the () are there */

If I were asked to guess, I'd guess it's for the same reason that
things like

	return (0);

crop up in my code as well.  I learned B before I learned C, and B
required that the expression on a return statement be parenthesized,
for no particularly good reason (Although at least one version of B
had return() implemented as a FUNCTION, and not a statement!).

I suspect that Messieurs Kernighan and Ritchie got into the same
habit, for much the same reason, as they were both B programmers
before they did C.  Perhaps dmr can enlighten us?

Kevin