🚀 go-pugleaf

>denis_r@epita.fr (Frank DENIS (Jedi/Sector One)) writes:
>>[These parentheses are not required,] but it appears that many
>>coders add them anyway ...  But in the next release of the C standard,
>>would these parenthesis be required or will they still be optional ?

In article <DCy9uG.CEr@proteon.com> John Woods <jfw@proteon.com> wrote:
>It's a good bet they will still be optional ...

While there are no absolute guarantees---the next C standard could
require `void main(double argc, struct vec$str$desc *argv)' instead
of `int main(int argc, char **argv)'---this bet is as good as any.

>Probably many coders add them because the parentheses are required
>in other languages they're used to ...

Early C compilers required these parentheses.  PCC, which appeared
in Phototypesetter V6, did not.  Whether Dennis's compiler still
required them when the White Book was first written I do not know,
but they appeared in all the examples.  I cannot find the revised
`ANSI C' edition of K&R to see whether they have removed them since
then.

In other words, the time when parentheses became optional was more
or less the same time that `void' and `enum' appeared and struct/union
member namespaces were separated.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Berkeley Software Design Inc
Berkeley, CA	Domain:	torek@bsdi.com	+1 510 549 1145