Can ANSI Standard C be "Optimized"

[Larry Wall]

In article <139 at homxa.UUCP> wcs at homxa.UUCP (Bill Stewart) writes:
>
>In general, anything that has side-effects makes optimization
>dangerous; assigning a value to *ptr may change the value of any
>variable that ptr could point to.  This may be why the standard
>limits optimization to very narrow locations, and is one reason why
>overprotective languages like ADA(tm) or Modula-2 have their devotees.

I don't think Ada(r) is overly protective--you can still cheat; it's just
not the default like in C.  :-)

And who was ADA?  I always thought her name was Ada.

>"The first major program written in ADA will be a COBOL interpreter."

Nonsense.  The first major program written in Ada will be (is?) an Ada
compiler. Now if you don't think an Ada compiler is a major program you've
been out chasing wombats.  And if you think a COBOL interpreter is
equivalent to an Ada compiler, you *should* be out chasing wombats.

Fullname'(GIVEN => "Larry", SUR => "Wall")
{allegra,burdvax,cbosgd,hplabs,ihnp4,sdcsvax}!sdcrdcf!lwall

P.S. Ya don't gotta say "(char *)NULL" in Ada.  Nyaa nyaa!