array[-1] -- permitted?
Chip Salzenberg
chip at ateng.uucp
Tue Sep 20 06:47:01 AEST 1988
According to news at ism780c.isc.com:
>But consider what might have happened had dpANS mandated that the compution
>of a pointer to x[-1] be a valid operation.
Okay, let's imagine: X3J11 says that x[-1] must be valid.
then: int must be 32 bits.
then: address space must be linear.
etc. until only the SPARC is conforming. (no smileys here)
Each time you make a "beneficial" restriction, you're condemning present
users of real, useful computers to the purgatory of enforced non-
conformance. I don't think anyone really wants X3J11 to make decisions
about which hardware will be permitted to run C programs.
In addition, it should be observed that on this issue, X3J11 stuck to its
charter and codified existing practice.
--
Chip Salzenberg <chip at ateng.uu.net> or <uunet!ateng!chip>
A T Engineering My employer may or may not agree with me.
The urgent leaves no time for the important.
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