🚀 go-pugleaf

On page 124 in Dr Dobbs Journal, the PC-Lint ad shows this bug #15.

----a1.cpp---
extern int *a;
void initialize(int*);

int main()
{
   initialize(a);
}

-------------
----a2.cpp----
int a[10];
void initialize(int *p)
{
   for(int i=0;i<10;i++) p[i]=i;
}
------------

I noticed that the type declarations for "a" didnt match, do I figured the
problem was there.  'extern int *a' should be changed to 'extern int a[]'
to avoid seg faults.   I have noticed this bug before in C/C++ programming
and have been careful about it.

My question is this:  Why is it, when C/C++ treats arrays as pointers that
the above bug will occur?  If *a and a[10] were different, why would it
link together correctly?  Shouldnt you get duplicate identifiers or some
error?

What exactly happens on the machine level?

--CB