Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Keith Thompson Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: comparison logic Date: Mon, 30 Jan 2017 11:40:25 -0800 Organization: None to speak of Lines: 46 Message-ID: References: <87vatkquaq.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <87h953osg3.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <874m12ptuv.fsf@bsb.me.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="a9fae22b5f567322e337da4e19df7ab9"; logging-data="25319"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+7SI1ImPyGpVl7fDbo/l2p" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.1 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:D5F247mPcvzXOX7gdfJqfmCdFcA= sha1:DIK0NY/8faNhBfHge/I6Ch2sh7I= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:102786 Tim Rentsch writes: > Keith Thompson writes: >> Tim Rentsch writes: >>> Keith Thompson writes: >>>> Tim Rentsch writes: >>>>> Ben Bacarisse writes: >>>> >>>> [...] >>>> >>>>>> Provided 'i' is not a volatile-qualified int variable! (Sorry, I can't >>>>>> resit nit-picking.) >>>>> >>>>> I think there is a second-order nit-picking rule in play here, >>>>> analogous to the rule about pointing out a spelling correction. >>>>> (yes, I can't resit either.) >>>> >>>> What is a "variable"? >>> >>> I assume the word "variable" here is supposed to mean a declared >>> compile-time entity that corresponds to an object at run-time. >>> Given the context, I don't know what else it could mean. >> >> Of course. The context was silly nitpicking, and the standard doesn't >> use the word "variable" in that sense. > > It doesn't, but I don't understand why you think of your > statement as nitpicking, since the original context doesn't > represent "variable" as being used in any sense other than the > regular English usage. Or maybe you thought of it as a silly > nitpick? The earlier comments were a bit silly, but I didn't > think either of their nitpicks were silly, just nitpicks. I'm not entirely sure what the "regular English usage" of the word "variable" is at it applies to C. In Ben's nitpick, "object" would have been more accurate than "variable". For example, it would apply to a const-qualified object, which isn't something I'd refer to as a "variable". (There are also questions about whether a struct member or an array element is a "variable", but those don't apply assuming `i` is meant to be taken literally as a single identifier, and presumably not a macro.) -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc. "We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this." -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"