Novice question.

Richard A. O'Keefe ok at goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au
Thu Nov 15 16:48:22 AEST 1990


I've been waiting to see if someone would say this, but if they have
I've missed it.

The only fixed guaranteed interpretation of 'register' in C has been
that it is identical to 'auto' _except_ that when you say 'register'
*you* are promising never ever to take the address of that variable.
It's rather like 'const'; it's a way for *you* to make promises *to*
the compiler, which the compiler may but need not exploit.

Even if you have a compiler which does a superb job of register allocation
when left to itself and a lousy job when you use 'register', it may be
worth using 'register' as a debugging aid from time to time.

-- 
The problem about real life is that moving one's knight to QB3
may always be replied to with a lob across the net.  --Alasdair Macintyre.



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