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From: Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Constants and undefined behavior
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 2026 15:26:35 -0700
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antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) writes:

[...]

> I think that lawyerish style of current C standard is mostly
> inertia,

I wouldn't use a term like lawyerish to describe the text in the
ISO C standard.  Can you explain what quality you mean to ascribe
to "lawyerish" writing in the C standard without using any term
related to lawyering or legal documents?

> and making standard more mathematical would improve it.

Could you elaborate on that statement?  In what ways would giving
a more mathematical treatment of C semantics improve the quality
of the ISO C document?  How would doing that advance the stated
purposes or goals of the C standard?

> But giving formal semantic in the standard would mean
> significantly bigger change.

Due to the nature of C, I believe it is effectively impossible to
give a formal mathematical definition of the semantics of C.  Do
you think such a thing is feasible or practicable?  If so can you
explain the reasoning behind your thinking?