>But this surly must be an error not a warning. ... The compiler generated only a warning.
No, it's not an error. Strange as that may seem. Part of the C legacy.
To put it in assembly terms: you are allowed to populate the registers with whatever information you want before returning to the caller. Even if your assembly routine's "contract" doesn't explicitly state that any registers will have some useful information in them.
C is closer in spirit (in my opinion) to a macro assembly language (say, Macro68 for the Amiga). C++ is closer in spirit to higher level languages (say, Smalltalk, Lisp, or Simula).
Now that's merely my opinion; I'm not trying to start a flame war over what language is "better" than another. All languages have their place... even ones like False and Brainf**k. Computer languages are just tools; some tools are better suited for particular tasks than other tools.
"When C++ is your hammer, all your problems look like thumbs." ~ Eric Scouten
>Should I report this to Apple?
No. It's not a bug.
>By the way, could I use the true gcc compiler and Apple's customised version on the same machine without conflict? How do I do this?
I would compile the GCC compiler such that it would reside in your home directory (e.g., /Users/tonybao/gcc/...), which you can configure during the, er, umm, configure process.
For information as to the care-and-feeding (set up and install) of GCC, please read the manuals <http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/>/
Side note: Apple's tweaked/custom version of GCC is a "true GCC compiler". I presume what you meant was "...a vanilla gcc compiler...".
Another way you can use a vanilla GCC, is to install Darwin (sans OS X). That should be more like a GNU/Linux-ish experience. Please, FreeBSD and Darwin aficionados, don't throw rotten tomatoes at me for the Linux comparison. They're all cool. I consider that a compliment.
HTH, --Eljay
