Declaring argument types

[Mark A. Swanson]

One of the C compilers we use for PDP-11 work supports the suggested
alternate function format, e.g.
 int printf(char *msg, int arg1, arg2, arg3)
   {
   ...
   }

It also allows function declerations to cooerce arguments: e.g.
  extern int ftn(float a,b);

 foo()
   {
   int k, l;

   ftn(k,l);
   }

will automatically cast k & l appropriately.  However, we have gone
through and removed all such usages, since no other C compiler has them,
they cause LINT to barf, etc.
   The compiler in question is a much modified version of the one
Bill Plauger did for Yourdon before he started Whitesmiths, Inc and
is not available.
    Having used both formats, I do think the revisions are an improvement,
producing more readable code and fewer mismatched argument bugs.  But they're
not valuable enough to justify an incompatible compiler, alas.

  Mark Swanson
  ...decvax!genrad!grkermit!marks