free(); after return();?

[Richard Heathfield]

I do not necessarily agree with your views on the use of casts. There are
millions of lines of C code lying around that date back to the early days
that still need to be maintained. In more than one occassion I've seen
entire rooms with hundreds of volumes of source code printouts that had no
documentation whatsoever because it got lost the last time the company
moved. Faced with that the last thing that would cross my mind would be to
upgrade compilers.

If you're stuck with an old compiler, so be it. But most newbies aren't, and
would be better off learning that unnecessary casting is always bad.

[...] However, note that Section 5.1.2.2.1.1 of the ISO C
Standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999) does allow for the definition of void main(),
even if at the price of portability.

It also allows for the definition of double main(), char *main(), and struct
{ float (*fp)(char *, float, double); int i; } main(), but I don't see
{ you
advocating those anywhere. Why not? Could it be because they're not
portable? Well, neither is void main(). Your position is inconsistent.

I do not advocate those because they're not as widespread as void main().

Many erroneous constructs are widespread. That doesn't mean we have to keep
spreading them wider and wider.

<snip>

 

[Dave Thompson]

As far as this newsgroup and the C language are concerned, the
existence of the C++ programming language has been recognized since
October 1999 in the current C standard by references in four foot
notes, and foot notes are not normative: <snipped>

Although it doesn't refer to the language explicitly, 6.10.8p5 is
there only because of C++, and is normative.

And, regarding another reply about top-posting by the lamer:
If you want to go to the end in OE, it's just Ctrl+END; that's not
very difficult. But in nearly all cases you shouldn't just quote, go
to the end, and add -- in *any* newsreader. You should go through and
snip, before starting to add. And OE doesn't make that the tiniest
bit harder than any other (and better) newsreader. There are good
reasons to complain about OE, but this top-posting isn't one.

- David.Thompson1 at worldnet.att.net