Then again, at least in C, the mantra is “declaration follows usage”. Surely you don’t write pointer dereferences as * ptr? Most likely not, you most likely write it as *ptr. The idea behind the int *ptr; syntax is basically that when you do *ptr, you get an int.
And with this idea, stuff like function pointers (int (*f)(void)), arrays of pointers (int *a[10]) versus pointers of arrays (int (*a)[10]) etc. start making sense. It’s certainly not the best way to design the syntax, and I’m as much a fan of the Pascal-styled “type follows the identifier” syntax (e.g. letx: number;) as anyone, but the C way does have a rhyme and a reason for the way it is.
Then again, at least in C, the mantra is “declaration follows usage”. Surely you don’t write pointer dereferences as
* ptr? Most likely not, you most likely write it as*ptr. The idea behind theint *ptr;syntax is basically that when you do*ptr, you get anint.And with this idea, stuff like function pointers (
int (*f)(void)), arrays of pointers (int *a[10]) versus pointers of arrays (int (*a)[10]) etc. start making sense. It’s certainly not the best way to design the syntax, and I’m as much a fan of the Pascal-styled “type follows the identifier” syntax (e.g.let x: number;) as anyone, but the C way does have a rhyme and a reason for the way it is.