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From: Ben Bacarisse <ben@bsb.me.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: technology discussion =?utf-8?Q?=E2=86=92?= does the world need
 a "new" C ?
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2024 14:32:00 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:

> On 10/07/2024 00:35, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>> 
>>> On 09/07/2024 18:22, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>>>> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> On 09/07/2024 16:58, Ben Bacarisse wrote:
>>>>>> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Arrays are passed by reference:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>      void F(int a[20]) {}
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>      int main(void) {
>>>>>>>        int x[20];
>>>>>>>        F(x);
>>>>>>>      }
>>>>>> This is the sort of thing that bad tutors say to students so that they
>>>>>> never learn C properly.  All parameter passing in C is by value.  All of
>>>>>> it.  You just have to know (a) what the syntax means and (b) what values
>>>>>> get passed.
>>>>>
>>>>> The end result is that a parameter declared with value-array syntax is
>>>>> passed using a reference rather than by value.
>>>>>
>>>>> And it does so because the language says, not because the ABI requires
>>>>> it. A 2-byte array is also passed by reference.
>>>> An address value is passed by value.  C has only one parameter passing
>>>> mechanism.  You can spin it as much as you like, but C's parameter
>>>> passing is simple to understand, provided learner tune out voices like
>>>> yours.
>>>
>>> Little about C's type system is simple.
>> Parameter passing is relatively simple though since there is only one
>> mechanism -- pass by value.
>
> Except when it comes to arrays.

The oddity is that, in C, one can't pass arrays to functions at all.
That is one of the quirks that people learning C need to learn.  It does
not alter the fact that there is only parameter passing mechanism -- by
value.

Your plan, of course, is to take that one place where C is relatively
simple and complicate by pretending that C as pass by reference as well
as by value.

-- 
Ben.