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[Doug Gwyn]

In article <gables.352 at umigw.miami.edu> slores%gables.span at umigw.miami.edu (Stanislaw L. Olejniczak) writes:
>	while ( (c = getchar) != EOF)
>		chcnt++ += (c == '\n');

The main problem is that getchar is a function-like macro, requiring
usage of a parenthesized argument list (containing no arguments), i.e.
	getchar()

The next problem is that the result of chcnt++ is not a modifiable
lvalue, so you cannot assign to it.  Split the statement into two
parts.

The final problem is that you say c is a char.  In that case it can
never compare equal to EOF on many systems.  getchar() returns an int,
not a char.

>... told me this would be too complex for a compiler.

Well, if it weren't for the other problems, I would say that any C
compiler that cannot handle expressions that complex is not worth
using.  Seriously!