lint problem - (nf)

[ucbesvax.turner at ucbcad.UUCP]

#N:ucbesvax:4800014:000:1368
ucbesvax!turner    Jun 22 05:02:00 1983

{~
	In "The C Programming Language", Kernighan and Ritchie say
of lint that

	    "...it detects type mismatches, inconsistent argument
	    usage,....Programs which pass through lint enjoy...
	    freedom from type errors as complete as do, for example,
	    Algol 68 programs." (p.3)
	
	My gripe is that when I pass pointers to structures out of
one file to a function in another, lint only checks to see if the
structures pointed to are the same size.  They might differ structurally
by quite a lot, otherwise.

	Either Algol 68 is less strongly typed than I had been led to
believe, or lint is cutting a corner here.  It might be a local
anomaly, so if anyone would like to try it themselves, please be
so kind as to inform me of any contrary result.

	Thanks (as always) in advance,
		Michael Turner
		ucbvax!ucbesvax.turner

P.S.  My other recent burn is "enum" types: why the @%$! can't you
      use them as array indices (which is quite natural, if you can
      recall your Pascal experiences without losing lunch)?  Especially
      considering that you can assign them to "int" variables without
      so much as a peep from lint.  Personally, about the only thing
      I miss from Pascal is strong-typing of array indices.  While
      C need not go that far to satisfy me, it should *not*, at the
      very least, be going in the *wrong* direction.
~}