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Infrequently Asked Questions in Comp.lang.c (1999)

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Re: Infrequently Asked Questions in Comp.lang.c (1999)

#11

Post by bluedino »

torstenvl wrote: post #3
awestroke wrote: post #2

After reading through this, I'm not sure if it's a list of jokes or real information? For example: > long ints can be entered using hexadecimal notation; for instance, > long int foo = 07; How is this a good example of hexadecimal input?

Most of them are inside jokes that aren't very funny. Most of them are indeed frequently asked, but by people who are a bit obstinate or otherwise don't fit the mold that old timers thought newbies should fit. As a result, the responses are often intentionally dismissive and unhelpful. EDIT: It occurs to me that comp.lang.c was the 80s-90s version of Stack Overflow. So at least they're comparatively funnier than the…

It was better than StackOverflow in a lot of ways.

Sure, it wasn't useful as a searchable database of questions, but the FAQ was very useful if you could spend time to wade through it, and any zero-effort posters were either flamed to oblivion or simply ignored.

I remember asking a couple stupid questions and directed to the documentation. To this day, at work I will suggest "let's see what the manual says", while troubleshooting and get a funny look and eve pushback after I find the answer.

Re: Infrequently Asked Questions in Comp.lang.c (1999)

#15

Post by torstenvl »

bluetomcat wrote: post #10
torstenvl wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of them are inside jokes that aren't very funny. Most of them are indeed frequently asked, but by people who are a bit obstinate or otherwise don't fit the mold that old timers thought newbies should fit. As a result, the responses are often intentionally dismissive and unhelpful. EDIT: It occurs to me that comp.lang.c was the 80s-90s version of Stack Overflow. So at least they're comparatively funnier than the…

On SO, any of these answers would be downvoted to death by people not recognising them as jokes at all. Language lawyer types would cite the part of the standard that classifies this as UB in the blink of an eye. It’s a different world we’re living in.

On SO these questions would get downvoted to death and the newbie would be admonished for breaking the site guidelines.

1.1: How do you decide which integer type to use?

    Closed as opinion based.
1.3: If I write the code int i, j; can I assume that (&i + 1) == &j?

    Please provide a minimal, complete and verifiable example.
Etc.

Re: Infrequently Asked Questions in Comp.lang.c (1999)

#18

Post by Kamq »

archfrog wrote: post #13

I don't want to be toxic but why make a function to cast a char to an int? I was astounded when I briefly skimmed through the list. I hope this is not curriculum in education.

I don't see the one you're talking to on a brief skim, but there are several functions that deal with processing a file character by character. They generally use ints because they need a way to signal end of file and you can't do that with any value of a byte.

Re: Infrequently Asked Questions in Comp.lang.c (1999)

#19

Post by chihuahua »

archfrog wrote: post #13

I don't want to be toxic but why make a function to cast a char to an int? I was astounded when I briefly skimmed through the list. I hope this is not curriculum in education.

I got the impression that the entire document is meant as a joke.
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