Nanako Shiraishi <nanako3@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> Quoting Junio C Hamano <gitster@xxxxxxxxx>
>
>> I queued to ease the discussion in 'pu'. I had to fix-up some conflicts
>> while doing so. Please sanity check the result.
>
> I see that you changed many "char* variable" to "char *variable", but
> what is the reason for these changes?
Nico already gave you correct and more concise version; this more verbose
explanation is primarily for you who said a few times that you are not
fluent in C. Others can skip this message without missing anything.
I haven't asked people why they choose to write like this:
char* string;
beyond "that is how we were taught and what we are used to".
But if I have to guess, it is because it makes it appear as if you are
being consistent between basic types like "int" and pointer types like
"char *". E.g. these both look like "<type> <variable>;"
int variable;
char* variable;
The example in CodingGuidelines gives a clear illustration that this
however is not the way how C language works. IOW, the syntax for
declaration is not "<type> <var1>, <var2>,...;". E.g.
char* var1, var2;
declares var1, which is a pointer to a char, and var2, which is a char.
That is what Nico means by '* is an attribute of the variable and not of
the type'.
The only sane way to read declaration in C is to read from inside to
outside, starting from a variable name. When you read "char **argv", for
example, you treat it as "char (*(*argv))", and read it from the variable
name:
- It declares argv; what's the type of it I wonder...
- It is a pointer, because the asterisk in front of it tells us that
we can dereference it. Now, what's the type of the result of
dereferencing argv, i.e. "*argv", I wonder...
- That "*argv" is a pointer, because the asterisk in front of it again
tells us that we can dereference it. Now, what's the type of
dereferencing that "*argv", i.e. "**argv", I wonder...
- Ah, it is a "char", that is what this declaration says.
And the style we use (which is the same as Linux kernel style) naturally
matches the way how you read this declaration.
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