Re: why use -> (not .) with pointers?

Lew Pitcher wrote: 
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lawrence.jones@xxxxxxx wrote: 
Felix Kater <f.kater2@xxxxxxx> wrote:

when accessing the variables in a struct: What's the reason why in C
you have -> and . instead of only . ? Are there cases in which the
compiler couldn't figure out what to do?



Not anymore.  But back in the dark ages, C was much less concerned about
types than it is today and would allow pretty much *anything* as the
left operand of . or ->.  In that environment, the compiler couldn't
figure out what to do, so having two different operators was essential.


Nonsense.

Even K&R (1st Edition) admits that the -> notation is 'syntactic sugar' (my
terms). The actual quote from "The C Programming Language" is
  "...pointers to structures are so frequently used that the -> notation is
   provided as a convenient shorthand."

I don't think he's talking about the fact that astruct->x is a shorthand
for (*astruct).x at all.  I think he's just saying that the early
compilers used the syntactical difference between astruct.x and
astruct->x to decide whether to generate instructions that used direct,
or conversely indirect addressing.
.

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