From: already5chosen@yahoo.com   
      
   On Tue, 6 Jan 2026 12:32:43 -0000 (UTC)   
   Michael Sanders  wrote:   
      
   > On Mon, 5 Jan 2026 08:39:53 -0000 (UTC), Michael Sanders wrote:   
   >    
   > > I might have questions down the road...     
   >    
   > One more question, but 1st the context...   
   >    
   > I asked ChatGPT this question:   
   >    
   >     In C, what is the most common meaning of (void) *foo   
   >    
   > Its reply:   
   >    
   >     In C, (void) *foo most commonly means:   
   >    
   >     “Evaluate *foo, but explicitly discard its value.”   
   >    
   >     It is a cast-to-void used to silence warnings about an   
   >     unused expression or unused result.   
   >    
   > My question: Why?   
   >    
      
   Why what?   
      
   There exist a need to selectively silence otherwise useful compiler   
   warnings. There are no standard ways to do it.   
   So compilers gave to user ways to express their wishes.   
      
   I would speculate that in case of this particular pattern it happened   
   initially by accident - users found a way to exploit weakness in   
   compiler's warning logic to achieve desired effect.   
   Since the usage became widespread, compiler vendors paid attention and   
   turned accidental behavior into semi-official.   
      
   There is similar convention w.r.t. unused function parameters that is   
   even more widespread.   
      
   Does it answer your question or you already knew that and asked about   
   something else?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)