[Coco] ANSI -> K&R Code Conversion

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/17/05 8:42:26 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
mannslists at invigorated.org writes:


>Would it be prudent to also look through some of the code and check  for 

things

>that would require another header under MWC? For example,  the need to 

include

>float.h (or whatever) when you try and print floats  or doubles (along with 

the

>added command pffinit ().) If I were to do  this, I believe it would go 

beyond

>what ANSI.C  offers



This is a good idea.
 
The converter should also print warnings whenever a variable is declared  
"unsigned char", since MWC does not support this, but will sign-extend any byte  
between 128 and 255 into a negative integer.  The user then has to insert  the 
(var & 255) expressions wherever 'var' is used as a Lvalue.
 
And keep in mind that pre-processing the ANSI prototypes out of the code,  
loses the protections they offer against getting arguments the wrong type  
(backwards, pointers to wrong length, etc.).  Pointers to different lengths  of 
integers are especially important, since we'd be porting code from a 32-bit  
integer world into a 16-bit, and probably changing the declarations of some of  
the vars.
 
I am a late convert to ANSI C (we never used that newfangled NIH stuff at  
Bell Labs, except maybe bitfields), but those prototypes and strict type  
checking in the compiler *and* the linker have saved my cute little pair of  
biscuits more than once.  I hate core dumps (which you don't get in OS9,  just a 
freeze-up).
--Mike K.