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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Using == operator
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2017 14:06:52 -0800
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Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> writes:
> On Monday January 2 2017 18:57, in comp.lang.c, "Keith Thompson" <kst-
> u@mib.org> wrote:
>
>> Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> writes:
>> [...]
>>> Also
>>>             if(node->next)
>>>
>>> reads like English.
>> 
>> Does it?  C has the convention that using a value as a condition
>> implicitly compares that value to zero.  English has no such convention.
>> 
>> For example, suppose I have a bag that may or may not contain any
>> apples.  In C, you can say either "if (apple_count != 0)" or
>> "if (apple_count)".  In English, "If the number of apples in the
>> bag then ..."  doesn't make sense.
>
>
> "If there are any apples in the bag, then..."

Even if we assume that that corresponds to `if (apple_count)`, what's
the corresponding English for if(node->next)?

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
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"