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Date: Mon, 4 Sep 1995 18:05:11 +1000
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199509040805.SAA14279@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: mal@algonet.se, terry@lambert.org
Subject: Re: eBones Changes coming soon!
Cc: committers@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org, mark@grondar.za
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>The extern declarations have (and should have) __P(( int a, char *b))
>wrappers on them so that an ANSI compiler can do type checking that
>would be in the linker if anyone could build a linker with any brains
>(besides Fred Fish's M88k one, I mean).

An ANSI compiler must also do type conversions of the args if a
prototype is in scope, and it can use a parameter passing convention
better suited to the arg types.

>The only valid argument for prototypes in the function declarations
>themselves is so you can compile the kernel with C++, which is not

The following arguments are sometimes given:

1) For static functions, it the prototype need not be declared separately
   from the function if the function is defined before it is referenced.
2) It is possible to pass chars and shorts without promotion.

These are actually counter-arguments :-).

Bruce