Block Structure Declarations

[jim at kovacs.UUCP]

>
According to K&R in "The C Programming Language" Sect 4.8, page 81:

   "Declarations of variables (including initializations)
   may follow the left brace that introduces *ANY* compound
   statement, not just the one that begins a function.
   Variables declared in this way supersede any identically
   named variables in outer blocks..."

Three examples are given. One example not given is:

	f(x)
	double x;
	{
		short x;
		...
	}

Within function "f", occurences of "x" refer to the internal "short"
variable. The compiler will not say a word about this. Lint says
"argument x unused in function f". Since I cannot think of a single
case where one would intentionally do this, I think the compiler
should warn that argument x is being redeclared.

-Jim Keating-
R. Abel & Assoc.
Hollywood, CA 90038
(213) 462 8100