C'mon, guys!

[Peter S. Shenkin]

In article <aimmi.769> gilbert at aimmi.UUCP (Gilbert Cockton) writes:
>Despite reading three years of discussion on and off on the pointer-array
>equivalance topic, as a casual user of C, I've never been able to come
>up with a clear view on when pointers and arrays are equivalent.
>guide to array-pointer equivalences.
>    ...
>Any volunteers for a simple set of statements that get the message
>across? There must be many C compiler experts out there.
>
>All I can start with is a straw man, as I'm no expert. 
>
>* given an array of dimensions a x b x c .. x n,
>  the array name is a pointer to array[0][0][0]..[0]
>
>* the only time this is any real use if when passing arrays by reference
>  as `array' is easier and safer to write than
>
>	  &(array[0][0][0]..[0])
>
>  as you don't need to bear the array dimensions in mind.

I'm no expert either, but figured I could submit my own straw man as
more ammunition for the gurus:

	When a function is called with an array as its argument, what 
	is passed is a pointer to the first element of the array.  
	That's all there is, there ain't no more.

Peter S. Shenkin	 Columbia Univ. Biology Dept., NY, NY  10027
{philabs,rna}!cubsvax!peters		cubsvax!peters at columbia.ARPA