From: jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu   
      
   On 25/10/2025 14:51, bart wrote:   
      
   > This is another matter. The CDECL docs talk about C and C++ type   
   > declarations being 'gibberish'.   
   >   
   > What do you feel about that, and the *need* for such a substantial tool   
   > to help understand or write such declarations?   
   >   
   > I would rather have put some effort into fixing the syntax so that such   
   > tools are not necessary!   
      
   They aren't. I've never needed them and have only rarely used them - and   
   never found the results worth the trouble. For me, converting a C type   
   into cdecl format has a feeling similar to what I feel when a C   
   expression statement is translated into COBOL - lots of unnecessary   
   extra verbiage that gets in the way of my understanding, it doesn't aid it.   
      
   C declaration syntax builds upon a simple principle: declaration   
   reflects use. It then adds some  unavoidable complications on that   
   principle. There's multiple ways that any given identifier can be used,   
   but there's one particular one that is the model for the declaration. A   
   given way of using an identifier can be used by identifiers of several   
   different types, but at most one of those types is the one that id   
   declared using a declaration that mirrors that particular usage.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)