Can Someone please help?

[Tiny Tim]

I am new C program student.

I wonder can we write a program in C that just trigger its function to do a certain action ?
In this case, I have a program but it is not working.
What I want is for the function to print "Hello". No passing of values to or from the function.
What is the correct way to write the program?

#include <stdio.h>

void Compute ; /*function prototype*/

int main ()
{ Compute; /*function call*/
return 0 ;
}
void Compute
{
printf ("Hello");
return ;
}

Thank you
Tim

[Lew Pitcher]

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Hash: SHA1
Tiny Tim wrote:

I am new C program student.

I wonder can we write a program in C that just trigger its function to do a certain action ?
In this case, I have a program but it is not working.
What I want is for the function to print "Hello". No passing of values to or from the function.
What is the correct way to write the program?

#include <stdio.h>

void Compute ; /*function prototype*/

Nope.

That's not a function prototype.

However,

void Compute(void);

is a function prototype.

Notice the difference? A function (prototype or not) has a list of zero
or more parameters, and is designated as a function by the presence of
the trailing bracketed parameter list.

int main ()
{ Compute; /*function call*/

Nope. That's not a function call. At best (had Compute not been
declared as void), that would be an expression involving a single
variable.

If you wanted a function call, you should have coded

Compute();

return 0 ;
}
void Compute

Requires a parameter list of zero or more parameters

Should have been

void Compute() /* or perhaps void Compute(void) */

{
printf ("Hello");
return ;
}

Thank you
Tim

HTH

- --
Lew Pitcher

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[Christopher Benson-Manica]

Tiny Tim <ts*****@streamyx.comwrote:

[-- text/plain, encoding quoted-printable, charset: iso-8859-1, 25 lines --]

Please don't post encoded articles, if you can help it.

#include <stdio.h>

void Compute ; /*function prototype*/

void Compute(); /* note parentheses */

int main ()
{
Compute; /*function call*/

Compute(); /* again */

return 0 ;
}
void Compute

void Compute() /* and again */

{
printf ("Hello");
return ;
}

I'd advise procuring a C book, preferably "The C Programming
Language", as soon as possible.

--
C. Benson Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
cbmanica(at)gmail.com | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

[Tiny Tim]

>

Nope. That's not a function call. At best (had Compute not been
declared as void), that would be an expression involving a single
variable.

If you wanted a function call, you should have coded

Compute();

- --
Lew Pitcher

Thank you Mr. Lew Pitcher
for such a superspeed reply.
I got my problem solved already.
Now I can move on.
Thanks again
Rgds,
Tim

[Simon Biber]

Tiny Tim wrote:

I am new C program student.

I wonder can we write a program in C that just trigger its function to do a
certain action ?
In this case, I have a program but it is not working.
What I want is for the function to print "Hello". No passing of values to or
from the function.
What is the correct way to write the program?

#include <stdio.h>

void Compute ; */*function prototype*/*

This is not a function prototype.

To declare a function, you must put parentheses after the function name.
The declaration above tries to declare a variable of type void, which is
not allowed.

Make it:
void Compute(); /* function declaration without prototype */
or
void Compute(void); /* function declaration with prototype */

Comments start with /* and end with */. You have added two extra
asterisks to the program that do not belong.

int main ()
{ Compute; */*function call*/

Your statement above merely evaluates Compute and does nothing. It does
not call it.

To call a function, you must put parentheses after the function name:
Compute();

There is also an extra asterisk in the line above.

* return 0 ;

There is an extra asterisk in the line above.

}
void Compute

A function definition must have parentheses after the function name.
This is simply a syntax error.

{
printf ("Hello");
return ;

A return statement is not necessary in a function that returns void, but
it does no harm.

}
Thank you
Tim

You're welcome.

--
Simon.

[Simon Biber]

Simon Biber wrote:

Tiny Tim wrote:

[...]

>void Compute ; */*function prototype*/*

[...]

Comments start with /* and end with */. You have added two extra
asterisks to the program that do not belong.

It appears that the extra asterisks were not in your original post but
were added by my Usenet client. They were added because you committed
the cardinal sin of posting to Usenet in HTML, and bolded the comments.
The <STRONGtag was converted to asterisks for display on my screen.

In future, you can avoid this problem by not posting HTML to newsgroups!

--
Simon.

[Christopher Benson-Manica]

Christopher Benson-Manica <at***@otaku.freeshell.orgwrote:

void Compute ; /*function prototype*/

void Compute(); /* note parentheses */

Er, void Compute( void ), per Lew's post. D'oh!

--
C. Benson Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
cbmanica(at)gmail.com | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

[Tiny Tim]

"Christopher Benson-Manica" <at***@otaku.freeshell.orgwrote in message
news:eb*********@chessie.cirr.com...

Tiny Tim <ts*****@streamyx.comwrote:

>[-- text/plain, encoding quoted-printable, charset: iso-8859-1, 25
lines --]

Please don't post encoded articles, if you can help it.

Dear Christopher,
Can you kindly teach/guide me how to avoid encoded articles in my Windows
XP running Outlook Express, by switching html format to text format?

Thanks
Rgds,
Tim

[Richard Tobin]

In article <44**********@news.peopletelecom.com.au>,
Simon Biber <ne**@ralmin.ccwrote:

>It appears that the extra asterisks were not in your original post but
were added by my Usenet client. They were added because you committed
the cardinal sin of posting to Usenet in HTML, and bolded the comments.

He posted it in both plain text and HTML. Posting in HTML is
certainly silly, but it's even sillier of your newsreader to show you
the HTML-converted-to-plain-text and not the plain text.

-- Richard

[Tiny Tim]

It appears that the extra asterisks were not in your original post but

were added by my Usenet client. They were added because you committed the
cardinal sin of posting to Usenet in HTML, and bolded the comments. The
<STRONGtag was converted to asterisks for display on my screen.

In future, you can avoid this problem by not posting HTML to newsgroups!

--
Simon.

Sorry, Simon,
Do you know how to switch HTML format to TEXT format on my WindowsXP (
running Outlook Express)?
Hope to solve the HTML posting problem.
Thanks
RGds,
Tim

[Tiny Tim]

A function definition must have parentheses after the function name.
This is simply a syntax error.

>{
printf ("Hello");
return ;

A return statement is not necessary in a function that returns void, but
it does no harm.

>}
Thank you
Tim

You're welcome.

--
Simon.

Thanks Simon,
I got it already.
Rgds,
Tim.

[Simon Biber]

Tiny Tim wrote:

>It appears that the extra asterisks were not in your original post but
were added by my Usenet client. They were added because you committed the
cardinal sin of posting to Usenet in HTML, and bolded the comments. The
<STRONGtag was converted to asterisks for display on my screen.

In future, you can avoid this problem by not posting HTML to newsgroups!

Sorry, Simon,
Do you know how to switch HTML format to TEXT format on my WindowsXP (
running Outlook Express)?
Hope to solve the HTML posting problem.

Tools -Options -Send -News Sending Format -Plain Text -OK

--
Simon.

[Christopher Benson-Manica]

Tiny Tim <ts*****@streamyx.comwrote:

Can you kindly teach/guide me how to avoid encoded articles in my Windows
XP running Outlook Express, by switching html format to text format?

You avoided it with this post, so it seems that whatever setting you
changed worked.

--
C. Benson Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
cbmanica(at)gmail.com | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

[Keith Thompson]

"Lew Pitcher" <lp******@sympatico.cawrites:

Tiny Tim wrote:

>I am new C program student.

[...]

>void Compute ; /*function prototype*/

Nope.

That's not a function prototype.

However,

void Compute(void);

is a function prototype.

[...]

>

>int main ()
{ Compute; /*function call*/

Nope. That's not a function call. At best (had Compute not been
declared as void), that would be an expression involving a single
variable.

If you wanted a function call, you should have coded

Compute();

Yes, but "Compute;" by itself (if Compute() is properly declared as a
function) is a valid (but useless) statement. The name of a function,
regardless of what it returns or what arguments it takes, is (usually)
converted to a pointer to the function. "Compute" by itself evaluates
to the address of the Compute function. Add a semicolon, and it's an
expression statement that evaluates the expression and discards the
result. Net effect: nothing happens.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

[Keith Thompson]

"Tiny Tim" <ts*****@streamyx.comwrites:

"Christopher Benson-Manica" <at***@otaku.freeshell.orgwrote in message
news:eb*********@chessie.cirr.com...

>Tiny Tim <ts*****@streamyx.comwrote:

>>[-- text/plain, encoding quoted-printable, charset: iso-8859-1, 25
lines --]

Please don't post encoded articles, if you can help it.

Can you kindly teach/guide me how to avoid encoded articles in my Windows
XP running Outlook Express, by switching html format to text format?

Yes, you want text format. Consult the documentation for Outlook
Express to find out how to do that.

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

[Tiny Tim]

Tools -Options -Send -News Sending Format -Plain Text -OK

>
--
Simon.

Thank you Simon.
I 've got it. I have set it up.
Thanks for your help.
Rgds,
Tim

[CBFalconer]

Tiny Tim wrote:

"Christopher Benson-Manica" <at***@otaku.freeshell.orgwrote:

>Tiny Tim <ts*****@streamyx.comwrote:

>>[-- text/plain, encoding quoted-printable, charset: iso-8859-1,
25 lines --]

Please don't post encoded articles, if you can help it.

Can you kindly teach/guide me how to avoid encoded articles in
my Windows XP running Outlook Express, by switching html format
to text format?

Get rid of Outlook Express. You can use Thunderbird or Netscape
4.7x, or many others, all less buggy.

--
"I support the Red Sox and any team that beats the Yankees"
"Any baby snookums can be a Yankee fan, it takes real moral
fiber to be a Red Sox fan" - "I listened to Toronto come back
from 3:0 in '42, I watched Boston come back from 3:0 in '04"

[CBFalconer]

Tiny Tim wrote:

>
Part 1.1 Type: Plain Text (text/plain)
Encoding: quoted-printable

Please do not use mime or html in newsgroups.

--
"I support the Red Sox and any team that beats the Yankees"
"Any baby snookums can be a Yankee fan, it takes real moral
fiber to be a Red Sox fan" - "I listened to Toronto come back
from 3:0 in '42, I watched Boston come back from 3:0 in '04"

[Keith Thompson]

CBFalconer <cb********@yahoo.comwrites:

Tiny Tim wrote:

>"Christopher Benson-Manica" <at***@otaku.freeshell.orgwrote:

>>Tiny Tim <ts*****@streamyx.comwrote:

[-- text/plain, encoding quoted-printable, charset: iso-8859-1,
25 lines --]

Please don't post encoded articles, if you can help it.

Can you kindly teach/guide me how to avoid encoded articles in
my Windows XP running Outlook Express, by switching html format
to text format?

Get rid of Outlook Express. You can use Thunderbird or Netscape
4.7x, or many others, all less buggy.

This may be good advice on its own merits, but Outlook Express can be
configured to post plain text (as the OP has already found).

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

[Mark F. Haigh]

Keith Thompson wrote:

"Lew Pitcher" <lp******@sympatico.cawrites:

Tiny Tim wrote:

<snip>

int main ()
{ Compute; /*function call*/

Nope. That's not a function call. At best (had Compute not been
declared as void), that would be an expression involving a single
variable.

If you wanted a function call, you should have coded

Compute();

Yes, but "Compute;" by itself (if Compute() is properly declared as a
function) is a valid (but useless) statement. The name of a function,
regardless of what it returns or what arguments it takes, is (usually)
converted to a pointer to the function. "Compute" by itself evaluates
to the address of the Compute function. Add a semicolon, and it's an
expression statement that evaluates the expression and discards the
result. Net effect: nothing happens.

I wonder if the OP had a little perl experience? A perl programmer
might think you can ditch the (), as is legal in perl. Interesting.
Mark F. Haigh
mf*****@sbcglobal.net

[Chen Shusheng]

#include <stdio.h>

void Compute(void) ; /*function prototype*/

int main ()
{ Compute(); /*function call*/

getchar();
return 0 ;
}
void Compute(void)
{
printf ("Hello");
return ;
}

This could be executed and get the results you want. But I do not know why

#include <stdio.h>
void Compute() ; /*function prototype*/

int main ()
{ Compute; /*function call*/

getchar();
return 0 ;
}
void Compute()
{
printf ("Hello");
return 0;
}

could be executed and pass my complier.
"Tiny Tim" <ts*****@streamyx.com??????:44**********@news.tm.n et.my...
I am new C program student.

I wonder can we write a program in C that just trigger its function to do a
certain action ?
In this case, I have a program but it is not working.
What I want is for the function to print "Hello". No passing of values to
or from the function.
What is the correct way to write the program?

#include <stdio.h>

void Compute ; /*function prototype*/

int main ()
{ Compute; /*function call*/
return 0 ;
}
void Compute
{
printf ("Hello");
return ;
}

Thank you
Tim

[Christopher Benson-Manica]

Chen Shusheng <ly*******@hotmail.tomwrote:

This could be executed and get the results you want. But I do not know why

int main ()
{ Compute; /*function call*/

Presumably this is what is puzzling you. As Keith noted elsethread,
Compute in this case is equivalent to a pointer to the function,
making it a pointless but legal statement.

Two general notes:

1) Figure out how to tell LookOutExpress to prepend the text you are
replying to with the open carets that you see in this post; it makes
it infinitely easier to determine who said what.

2) Your reply should go below the text you are replying to, as I have
done in this post.

--
C. Benson Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
cbmanica(at)gmail.com | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

[Keith Thompson]

"Mark F. Haigh" <mf*****@sbcglobal.netwrites:

Keith Thompson wrote:

[...]

>Yes, but "Compute;" by itself (if Compute() is properly declared as a
function) is a valid (but useless) statement. The name of a function,
regardless of what it returns or what arguments it takes, is (usually)
converted to a pointer to the function. "Compute" by itself evaluates
to the address of the Compute function. Add a semicolon, and it's an
expression statement that evaluates the expression and discards the
result. Net effect: nothing happens.

I wonder if the OP had a little perl experience? A perl programmer
might think you can ditch the (), as is legal in perl. Interesting.

Possibly, but Perl isn't the only language in which a function name
without parentheses can be a call to the function (if the function
takes no arguments). In fact, C is somewhat unusual in this regard,
at least in my experience (necessarily so because the name of a
function *without* parentheses as the address of the function,
something that many other languages don't have).

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) ks***@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

[Mark F. Haigh]

Keith Thompson wrote:

"Mark F. Haigh" <mf*****@sbcglobal.netwrites:

Keith Thompson wrote:

[...]

Yes, but "Compute;" by itself (if Compute() is properly declared as a
function) is a valid (but useless) statement. The name of a function,
regardless of what it returns or what arguments it takes, is (usually)
converted to a pointer to the function. "Compute" by itself evaluates
to the address of the Compute function. Add a semicolon, and it's an
expression statement that evaluates the expression and discards the
result. Net effect: nothing happens.

I wonder if the OP had a little perl experience? A perl programmer
might think you can ditch the (), as is legal in perl. Interesting.

Possibly, but Perl isn't the only language in which a function name
without parentheses can be a call to the function (if the function
takes no arguments). In fact, C is somewhat unusual in this regard,
at least in my experience (necessarily so because the name of a
function *without* parentheses as the address of the function,
something that many other languages don't have).

I was just thinking out loud, trying to figure out where this
particular mistake likely originated from, if anywhere. I was thinking
someone familiar with Unix-isms might think along the lines:

--- sh ---
#!/bin/sh

Compute() {
printf "Hello, World\n";
return;
}

Compute;
exit 0;

--- perl ---
#!/usr/bin/perl -w

sub Compute {
printf "Hello, World\n";
return;
}

Compute;
exit 0;

--- And therefore C (formatted like perl) would be: ---

void Compute(void) {
printf("Hello, World!\n");
return;
}

int main(void) {
Compute; /* bzzt */
return 0;
}
Then I thought, hell, with the kids and their blogs these days it's
probably a mod_perl-er dipping his toe in the C end of the pool.

All in all, neither very interesting nor insightful. Ah well.
Mark F. Haigh
mf*****@sbcglobal.net