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Groups > comp.lang.c > #103138

Re: lvalues from the ternary op

From Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu>
Newsgroups comp.lang.c
Subject Re: lvalues from the ternary op
Date 2017-02-04 07:51 -0800
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <kfn4m0a9cox.fsf@x-alumni2.alumni.caltech.edu> (permalink)
References (16 earlier) <aa4dec3a-ebfc-495a-9160-e260037473f5@googlegroups.com> <kfnlgtrdvq3.fsf@x-alumni2.alumni.caltech.edu> <698d5687-fb5e-488d-841e-99991d26c314@googlegroups.com> <i91bmd-no6.ln1@spanky.localhost.net> <4818f3ca-9f90-404d-8a5e-96469d12a466@googlegroups.com>

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supercat@casperkitty.com writes:

> On Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 12:58:03 AM UTC-6, Kelsey Bjarnason wrote:
>> Which suggests that what counts is not "accessing the storage *of*
>> an object", but, rather, accessing the storage *as* an object.  As
>> long as object u.b is not accessed (without an intervening store of
>> a legitimate value into u.b), then there should be no unexpected
>> behaviour, the accessing of u.a should behave exactly as if u.a
>> were a member of a struct, rather than a union.
>>
>> Or did I miss something?
>
> When C was designed, that was pretty much how things worked, and it
> made C very useful for systems programming.  Many implementations of
> other languages had ways that arbitrary regions of memory could be
> accessed as various types, but because such features were not
> inherent to those languages different compilers--even for the same
> platform--would often implement them in various ways.  C became
> popular because it was one of the first language that both providing
> a consistent syntax by which such constructs could be expressed and
> also supported 8-bit types.
>
> On the other hand, given something like:
>
>     float f;
>     int *p;
>
>     float test()
>     {
>       f=1.0f;
>       *p += 0x0100;
>       return f;
>     }
>
> the authors of the Standard recognized that it would make sense not
> to require that the compiler physically reload f from memory or
> otherwise allow for the "dubious" possibility that *p might alias f.
>
> The authors of the Standard figured that given some simple rules
> that would allow compilers to ignore aliasing in cases where it
> would be unlikely to be of much use, compiler writers could be
> relied upon to support aliasing in other cases where it would be
> needed (which would vary with both the target platform and
> application field;  aliasing of "float" and "int" would be rare in
> scientific code, for example, but common in floating-point library
> code).  If the authors of the Standard had wanted to describe all
> the cases where they would have thought it obvious to everyone that
> aliasing should be supported, that would have required much more
> complicated definitions for "object", "access", etc.  Since all that
> extra complexity probably wouldn't have resulted in C89 compiler
> writers doing anything *that they weren't going to do anyway*, that
> would have been a waste of time and ink.
>
> Unfortunately, the authors of later standards have been loath to
> change fundamental definitions that seem to have "worked well", even
> if the only reason that they worked was that compiler writers and
> programmers alike had been glossing over the contradictions they
> posed.

This description greatly mischaracterizes the history.  It is
essentially purely a product of supercat's imagination.

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Thread

Re: lvalues from the ternary op Manfred <noname@invalid.add> - 2017-01-04 19:46 +0100
  Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-04 11:08 -0800
  Re: lvalues from the ternary op Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-01-04 21:10 +0000
    Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-04 13:48 -0800
      Re: lvalues from the ternary op Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> - 2017-01-05 11:07 +1300
        Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-04 14:20 -0800
      Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-04 14:41 -0800
        Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-04 15:21 -0800
          Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-04 15:52 -0800
            Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-04 16:37 -0800
            Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-04 18:31 -0800
              Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-01-13 17:26 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-13 17:49 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-01-15 22:53 -0800
    Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-01-13 17:08 -0800
      Re: lvalues from the ternary op Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-01-14 02:15 +0000
        Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-01-15 22:51 -0800
      Re: lvalues from the ternary op luser droog <luser.droog@gmail.com> - 2017-01-16 23:09 -0800
        Re: lvalues from the ternary op Manfred <noname@invalid.add> - 2017-01-18 14:51 +0100
          Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-18 09:59 -0800
            Re: lvalues from the ternary op Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2017-01-18 13:12 -0500
            Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-18 12:11 -0800
              Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-18 12:45 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-18 14:07 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-18 14:40 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-18 16:10 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-18 18:08 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-19 06:44 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-19 08:40 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-19 12:32 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-20 06:01 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-20 08:15 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-20 10:51 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-20 11:32 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-20 13:41 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-23 07:04 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Ike Naar <ike@iceland.freeshell.org> - 2017-01-23 17:59 +0000
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-23 10:57 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-01-31 08:45 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-01-31 09:13 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-31 10:17 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-02-01 01:51 +0000
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-01 14:24 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2017-02-02 03:07 +0000
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-04 04:43 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-04 08:01 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-09 09:06 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-09 11:56 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-12 10:29 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-12 13:43 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-19 21:44 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-20 08:15 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-24 07:58 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-24 10:00 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2017-02-24 18:58 +0000
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-24 13:03 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-24 14:11 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-24 12:42 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-24 13:49 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-24 13:58 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2017-02-24 14:56 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat <flatfinger@casperkitty.com> - 2017-02-25 14:00 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-25 09:23 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-25 09:43 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Kelsey Bjarnason <kbjarnason@gmail.com> - 2017-02-01 22:47 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-02 10:12 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-04 07:51 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-02-04 08:18 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-09 08:58 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-04 04:00 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Kelsey Bjarnason <kbjarnason@gmail.com> - 2017-02-04 09:35 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-04 09:35 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2017-01-31 13:36 -0600
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op supercat@casperkitty.com - 2017-01-31 12:23 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-02-01 13:48 -0800
                Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-01-31 08:53 -0800
            Re: lvalues from the ternary op Manfred <noname@invalid.add> - 2017-01-19 14:10 +0100
        Re: lvalues from the ternary op Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2017-01-30 12:05 -0800

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