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NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:53:01 -0600
Message-ID: <4F3B483F.7D75@mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:53:03 -0500
From: pete <pfiland@mindspring.com>
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Subject: Re: global/static variables & loops
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Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.c:17355

Eric Sosman wrote:
> 
> On 2/14/2012 2:56 PM, Rob Janecek wrote:
> > Hello,
> > In some coding advice I saw on the internet, we are urged to "avoid
> > referring to global or static variables inside the tightest loops".
> 
>      Reasonable advice.  I'd go a little further, and delete the
> final four words.  Global variables have a way of tying together
> pieces of your program that you didn't realize were related, and
> this effect increases as the program grows larger.  It's no good
> having modular code if you also have spaghetti data.
> 
>      That said, I'd also point out that "avoid" is not absolute;
> perhaps "prefer not" would capture the notion more aptly.  For
> example, it's hard to argue against the global variable in
> 
>         printf ("Hello, world!\n");
> 
> (If you don't see the global variable, try using fprintf() instead.)
> That's a sort of yardstick you might want to use: When you're thinking
> of making some variable global, as yourself whether it's as "useful"
> to the program at large as `stdout' is.  

On my machine, stdout is an address constant,
which is not something that I would refer to as a "variable".

I can compile this: 

    FILE *array[] = {stdout};


-- 
pete