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From: Robert Dewar <robert_dewar@my-dejanews.com>
Subject: Re: scope and/or parameters (beginner)
Date: 1999/04/15
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Date: 1999-04-15T00:00:00+00:00
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In article <37149AE9.883147B6@prolifics.com>,
  Hyman Rosen <hymie@prolifics.com> wrote:
> Robert Dewar wrote:
>
> Correct. A C programmer would, of course, simply declare
> the parameter as being 'const', then insert the test
> exactly as you did in Ada.
>
> Hmph. I'm surprised that you, of all people, are so
> parochial. You usually aren't.

The "of course" here is mighty forced :-)

First, I have never *ever* seen C programmers routinely
write prototypes with const in them, as in

   int max (const int a, const int b) {

so to claim that it is standard practice, as implied by
your "of course" is really stretching things.

Second, please note that in C, if you *do* declare things
this way, the effect of assigning to the const object is
"undefined" according to the ANSI C standard, not illegal
but undefined!

Your compiler may be kind enough to give you a warning,
gcc does, but it is not even required to do this.

So (a) I think the claim that C programmers would of course
use the const keyword in this context is completely bogus
and (b) even if they do, it does not mean that the compiler
will reject attempts to assign to the "const" object.

perhaps the abbreviation of constant to const is best
interpreted as meaning that it is sort of constant, but
not very :-) :-)

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