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From: Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: .5 against 0.5f
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2026 15:47:26 -0700
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"Steven G. Kargl" <sgk@REMOVEtroutmask.apl.washington.edu> writes:

> On Thu, 29 Oct 2026 10:45:16 +0100, David Brown wrote:
>
>> Let me put it another way.  What benefit do you think there is from
>> these parentheses?  Why does the FreeBSD style guide recommend them?
>> I can see benefits in consistency of style once that usage has been
>> established, but why have them in the first place?
>
> As we all know, FreeBSD is derived from software developed by
> the CSRG at UC Berkeley during the 70's.  FreeBSD adopted the
> Kernel Normal Format (KNF) from CSRG.  You will need to contact
> a former member of CSRG such as Bostik, McKusick, Joy, Leffler,
> etc.  and them why KNF requires ().
>
> Perhaps, the C compiler from 40 or so years ago required
> parentheses in a return statement.  Or, just maybe, members of
> CSRG read K&R and noticed the authors of the book consistently
> use paretheses in their examples.  Ah yes, let's look at
> the documentation:
>
> % man 9 style
>
> HISTORY
>     This manual page was originally based on the src/admin/style/style
>     file from the 4.4BSD-Lite2 release, with frequent updates to
>     reflect the current practice and desire of the FreeBSD project.
>     src/admin/style/style is a codification by the CSRG of the
>     programming style of Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie in Version6
>     AT&T UNIX.
>
> So, it seems to be a preference of Ritchie.

It may have been simply long-standing habit rather than preference.
In the early days of C parentheses around return expressions were
required, not optional.  I've been programming in C long enough to
have been influenced by that requirement (and later learned to undo
it).