What's wrong with printf() , exit() ?

[Larry Cipriani]

> What's wrong with
> 	printf("usage: foo bar\n"), exit(1);
> as above?
> 

Aside from style, exit is a statement syntatically but , requires
expressions.  The compilers I've used will accept this and do
what you'd expect.  Why is that ?  Is this a special exeption ?

Compilers may exist that won't accept it.  However, this:

	printf("uage: foo bar\n"), return 1 ;

generates a syntactic error message.  If a compiler accepts , exit()
why not , return ?  Maybe it's too complicated to do, and not worth the
trouble.

Some uses of , are transparent and useful.  Such as multiple initial-
izations in a for loop, e.g. for(i = 0 , j = 1; ...).  Doing all the
relevant initializations in one place is important.  Or in a while loop:

	while(readresp(CMD), command)

where readresp is a void function (and has to be) and command is side
affected several routines down.  Coding this without the , obscures the
code (at least to me).

-- 

Larry Cipriani		Nothing is worse than having
danews!lvc		an itch you can never scratch