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Groups > comp.lang.c > #139487

Re: calling argumentless function with argument

From Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups comp.lang.c
Subject Re: calling argumentless function with argument
Date 2019-01-06 15:59 -0800
Organization None to speak of
Message-ID <lno98tibhq.fsf@kst-u.example.com> (permalink)
References (12 earlier) <1dcff02b-a821-401e-861d-6984bbf7c5cc@googlegroups.com> <m2imz2j6dz.fsf@despina.home> <m2bm4uj66l.fsf@despina.home> <ad9a4590-0b48-4142-a8d6-b8ad09127c6b@googlegroups.com> <m27efhkem6.fsf@despina.home>

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"Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> writes:
[...]
> This is not true.  Granted, it's relative to the user, but realize that
> programmers that consider that + is concatenation have a distorted view.
> + is addition for everybody. The concatenation operator is always
> denoted with some something else (ยท or ! or empty, etc).

That's not correct.  C++ and Python, for example, both use "+"
for string concatenation (C++ for its std::string type, not for
C-style strings), and I'm sure there are plenty of other languages
that do the same.  It's not mathematical addition, but it is a
kind of addition, in that you're "adding" a string to the end of
another string.  In any case, programmers who use those languages
are, for the most part, perfectly capable of understanding that
"+" in that context doesn't mean addition.

The assignment of operator symbols to operations, both in mathematics
and in programming, is mostly arbitrary.

I suggest that what you mean is that you personally dislike using
"+" for concatenation.

> But foremost, in the case of C:
>
> 1- string + integer and integer + string already has a meaning so you
>    cannot use + to mean concatenation in those cases.

That's only an issue if you want to support concatenation of strings and
integers without explicit conversion.

> 2- string-literal string-literal already means concatenation.  So it
>    would be much better to use empty for concatenation, than +.
>    (But ! would be even better, and as binary operator it's free).

The existing syntax for string literal concatenation is unambiguous,
since two adjacent string literals don't have a different meaning.
Allowing arbitrary expressions could produce some ambiguities, and
could cause problems for typos.  *If* C were to add a concatenation
operator, it should probably be a punctuation symbol.  I would have
no problem using "!"  for this.  (Perl 6 uses "~", FWIW.)

But working out the semantics would be very difficult.

C++'s std::string is defined using the features of the language
(classes, operator overloading, implicitly invoked constructors and
destructors, etc.).  If there were a way to do something similar
using C's language features, or by adding some *small* well-defined
set of features that would be of general use, I wouldn't object.
I'm just skeptical that it's practical.  (Of course you could do it by
turning C into C++, but C++ already exists.)

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Will write code for food.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"

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Thread

calling argumentless function with argument jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2019-01-04 16:04 +0000
  Re: calling argumentless function with argument David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-01-04 17:34 +0100
    Re: calling argumentless function with argument Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-01-04 17:30 +0000
      Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-04 09:50 -0800
        Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-05 05:58 -0800
          Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-05 07:56 -0800
            Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-05 10:56 -0800
              Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-05 14:55 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 01:29 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-01-06 02:20 +0000
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-01-06 02:51 +0000
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 12:12 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-01-06 11:53 +0000
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 12:58 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-01-06 11:45 +0000
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 12:58 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-01-06 12:24 +0000
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2019-01-06 04:34 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 13:41 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 04:10 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 13:51 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 13:56 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 05:20 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 16:08 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2019-01-06 15:59 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-01-06 13:42 +0000
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 06:22 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 16:19 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 07:42 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 08:05 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 08:30 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 17:44 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 08:54 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-07 08:02 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-07 08:07 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-07 09:16 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-07 09:40 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-07 09:57 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-09 02:23 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 16:17 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-01-06 16:56 +0000
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 09:12 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 12:39 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 18:26 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Bart <bc@freeuk.com> - 2019-01-06 18:52 +0000
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-06 02:32 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2019-01-06 04:38 -0800
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 13:42 +0100
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2019-01-06 10:27 -0600
                Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-06 17:47 +0100
      Re: calling argumentless function with argument David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-01-04 19:30 +0100
      Re: calling argumentless function with argument Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2019-01-04 10:55 -0800
      Re: calling argumentless function with argument Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2019-01-05 00:16 -0600
    Re: calling argumentless function with argument queequeg@trust.no1 (Queequeg) - 2019-01-07 10:43 +0000
      Re: calling argumentless function with argument Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2019-01-07 16:25 -0600
  Re: calling argumentless function with argument Barry Schwarz <schwarzb@dqel.com> - 2019-01-04 09:54 -0800
  Re: calling argumentless function with argument Thiago Adams <thiago.adams@gmail.com> - 2019-01-04 10:26 -0800
    Re: calling argumentless function with argument Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2019-01-04 12:07 -0800
  Re: calling argumentless function with argument James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2019-01-04 15:03 -0500
    Re: calling argumentless function with argument Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-01-05 00:04 +0000
      Re: calling argumentless function with argument James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2019-01-05 22:36 -0500
  Re: calling argumentless function with argument jt@toerring.de (Jens Thoms Toerring) - 2019-01-05 13:17 +0000
    Re: calling argumentless function with argument fir <profesor.fir@gmail.com> - 2019-01-05 06:06 -0800
    Re: calling argumentless function with argument David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2019-01-05 15:42 +0100
      Re: calling argumentless function with argument Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-01-05 14:58 +0000
    Re: calling argumentless function with argument "Pascal J. Bourguignon" <pjb@informatimago.com> - 2019-01-05 16:11 +0100
    Re: calling argumentless function with argument Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2019-01-05 11:23 -0500
      Re: calling argumentless function with argument Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-01-05 16:53 +0000
        Re: calling argumentless function with argument Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2019-01-06 00:46 +0000

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