Why char *f is different from char f[]

[utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!unix-wizards]

>From harpo!jerry at Berkeley Fri Dec 11 08:07:17 1981

There is a difference between a pointer to a character
and an array of characters, although in some contexts
C tries to hide that fact.  The declaration "char *ptr"
says that the variable ptr contains a pointer to a character.
Normally, the declaration "char ary[]" says that ary contains 
an array of characters. But in most contexts C interprets 
occurances of "ary" as equivalent a pointer to the first character 
of the array.  If in another file you declare "char *ary",  
the value of ary will be the first few characters of ary, 
interpreted as a pointer.

The real confusion comes when C comes to interpreting
function declarations like "foo(ary) char ary[]".  In
that case C interprets "ary" as a pointer to a character.

I think that the semantics of arrays is one of the worst
thought out features of C.