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From: bart <bc@freeuk.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?Re=3A_technology_discussion_=E2=86=92_does_the_world_need?=
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Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2024 15:04:37 +0100
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On 11/07/2024 14:26, Tim Rentsch wrote:
> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
> 
>> On 11/07/2024 12:49, Tim Rentsch wrote:
>>
>>> bart <bc@freeuk.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> According to what people have said, C would STILL be a language that
>>>> passed thing by value, and never by automatic reference.
>>>
>>> First, the scheme that you outline is either dumb or disingenuous
>>> (or perhaps both).
>>>
>>> Second, the argument you're making is purely ad hominem:  it
>>> isn't about what is true but about what it is people will say, or
>>> at least what you think they would say.
>>>
>>> Third, none of this changes the underlying reality.  Whatever
>>> people might say about your hypothetical scenario, or whatever it
>>> is you think they would say, it doesn't alter the fact that in C
>>> all function arguments are passed by value, and not by reference.
>>
>> People don't write software based on the the precise, pedantic details
>> of what a language reference says, which are always to use the same
>> carefully selected set of terms.
>>
>> They want to write programs that do useful tasks.
>>
>> If that task calls for a function that manipulates arrays as though
>> they were passed by reference, then, guess what, they will use a C
>> function that the standard says always passes things by value.
>>
>> For that purpose, in the mind of the user, it does the same job as 'by
>> by reference'.  That it does so by some other quirks (array decay, and
>> the ability to index pointers as thought they were arrays), is by the
>> by.
>>
>> I understand that in this newsgroup, most posters are only interested
>> in what the Standard says and little else, and will pounce upon any
>> turns of phrase, any nomenclature, that deviate even slightly from
>> what it says in that document.
>>
>> I also understand that this is not comp.std.c
>>
>> Meanwhile, the internet abounds with quotes like this about C:
>>
>> "When we pass the address of an array while calling a function then
>> this is called function call by reference."
>>
>> "Basically, in C, function parameters that are arrays are passed by
>> reference, by default."
>>
>> Yes, I get that such lax informality would annoy the people here.
> 
> You have proven once again that your goal is not to inform
> but to annoy.  Congratulations.  Mission accomplished.

And yours (plural as it's not just you) is also to annoy with pointless 
pedantry.