Re: C23 thoughts and opinions

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From	Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: C23 thoughts and opinions
Date	Mon, 03 Jun 2024 16:23:57 -0700
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bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
[...]
> At this point someone will suggest a macro this:
>
>   #define forever for(;;)

When I was first learning C, I defined a macro, something like:

    #define ever ;;

so that I could write

    for (ever) {
        /* ... */
    }

At the time, I thought it was very clever.

I still think it was very clever.  But I no longer think that's a
good thing.

> All that suggest sto me is that the language *needs* an explicit
> endless loop!

No, it doesn't.

There are multiple valid and idiomatic ways to write an infinite
loop in C:

    for (;;)
    while (1)
    while (true) // requires C99 or later and #include <stdbool.h>,
                 // or C23 or later without the #include,
                 // or your own "true" macro.

There is nothing wrong with any of them.  All C programmers should
immediately recognize each of them as an infinite loop.  The compiler
might have to do a few different things internally to process each
one -- and that makes no difference to me as a programmer.  If a
compiler generated different code for different forms, I probably
wouldn't notice.  If I bothered to check, I'd be mildly curious
about the reasons, and annoyed if one form was more efficient.

A language designed from the beginning with syntactic and semantic
elegance in mind might have only one explicit form of infinite loop
(though something like "while (true)" or "while (1+1==2)" would
still be allowed).  C is not that language.

I suspect some of the people in this thread saying that one form
is obviously better than the others are joking.

It doesn't matter.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com
void Void(void) { Void(); } /* The recursive call of the void */

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Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Lynn McGuire <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> - 2024-05-31 17:55 -0500
  Re: C23 thoughts and opinions David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2024-06-01 15:30 +0200
  Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-06-02 03:29 +0000
    Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-01 23:31 -0700
    Re: C23 thoughts and opinions gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2024-06-02 13:24 +0000
      Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2024-06-02 16:51 +0000
        Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2024-06-02 19:52 +0000
          Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2024-06-03 12:01 +0300
          Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2024-06-03 13:31 -0700
            Re: C23 thoughts and opinions "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2024-06-03 14:02 -0700
              Re: C23 thoughts and opinions gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2024-06-03 21:48 +0000
                Re: C23 thoughts and opinions David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2024-06-04 10:36 +0200
                Re: C23 thoughts and opinions "Chris M. Thomasson" <chris.m.thomasson.1@gmail.com> - 2024-06-04 14:47 -0700
          Re: C23 thoughts and opinions bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2024-06-03 23:43 +0100
            Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2024-06-03 16:23 -0700
              Re: C23 thoughts and opinions David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2024-06-04 10:47 +0200
            Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2024-06-04 02:20 +0000
              Re: C23 thoughts and opinions David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2024-06-04 10:47 +0200
            Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2024-06-04 05:25 +0000
        Re: C23 thoughts and opinions Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2024-06-03 13:29 -0700

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