PETER ONION wrote:
>>> if(diff >=3D 0)
>>>      byte =3D  0;
>>> else
>>>
>>> {
>>>      byte =3D  8;
>>>      diff =3D - diff;
>>> }
>
> The ";" just terminates the "if true statement".

But if a semicolon doesn't end the IF statement, what does end it
unambiguously?  Or put another way, what if there was a outer IF not shown
above, and ELSE was meant to be part of it, not the IF shown.  How would yo=
u
then end the IF shown so that the ELSE would not be part of it?

For example:

  if (outer_condition)
      if (inner_condition) count=3D0; //TRUE case of outer IF
    else
      do_something();               //FALSE case of outer IF

How do you "end" the second IF so that the ELSE belongs to the first IF?  I=
f
what you're saying above is true, then the only way to do this is to put th=
e
second IF inside brackets?  I suppose that's at least consistant, but just
asking for easily made mistakes.  Worse, what I wrote above would not be
interpreted as intended, but would be perfectly legal and not generate any
compile error.

This is why it seemed logical that the ";" would end the inner IF.  But if
what you're saying is true (I expect it is, as I said, I'm no C whiz), it's
hard to imagine what was going thru K&R's minds when they designed the
syntax.

This would be yet another reason to religiously use brackets in IF
statements.  That's probably why I never bumped into this in real code.


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