🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4cpqt6$9r8@solutions.solon.com>,
Peter Seebach <seebs@solutions.solon.com> wrote:
>ANSI/ISO C *requires* one of two declarations of main in a hosted environment.
>(In a freestanding environment, it is implementation defined whether or not
>there may be, must be, or is, a function named main.)  They both return int.
>One has no arguments, the other has two.

Implementations are free to accept other declarations of main().  Indeed,
the Rationale (not strictly part of the Standard, of course) says (p. 11)
"While many implementations support more than two arguments to main, such
practice is neither blessed nor forbidden by the Standard; a program that
defines main with three arguments is not _strictly conforming_."

So your program is not erroneous if it expects three arguments to main(),
as long as your compiler accepts it.  It just isn't necessarily portable
to any other system (or compiler).

So if you find a compiler that won't accept "int main(int, char **)",
you have grounds for a complaint.  If your compiler won't accept
"void main(int, char **, char **)", tough.  You're SOL unless there
is some other standard (like POSIX, perhaps) that requires it -- then
your program is limited to systems covered by that other standard.

Yes, I think programmers should remove unnecessary non-portabilities
from their code.  No, I don't think "void main()" should be the instant
flame-trigger it seems to be.

Gary Ansok
ansok@alumni.caltech.edu