> Didier Kryn <kryn@???> writes:
>> Le 23/01/2016 12:16, Didier Kryn a écrit :
>>>      I'm curious of the reason why you specify
>>>     static void print_start(char const *name, char const *what)

>>>      This means the pointers to the arrays of characters are constant
>>>      (not the characters).
> [...]

>>      Sorry, I overlooked the code and read "char const *name" as if it
>> was "char * const name". Actually the syntax you used is equivalent to
>> "const char *name".
> That's a habit based on an observation I made when I started to write
> code in C: Type qualifiers are left-associative (presumably a misuse of
> the term) unless there's nothing to the left of them, eg

     So, we could express it as the general declaration would be:

     <declaration statement>=<base type> <list of declarations>;

     <list of declaration> = <variable declaration>
                                        |  <list of declarations>, 
<variable declaration>

     <variable declaration>=<level of indirection and qualification> 
<variable name>

     <level of indirection and qualification> = <level of indirection> 
<qualifier>

     To simplify the description, I assume <qualifier> can be null.

     For example:

     char x,  * const *p;
     where p would be a pointer to a constant pointer to a char.

     But another syntax is allowed, where the qualifier[s] can be on the 
left. I'm not sure there's a BNF description of the C syntax.

     The most important goal is not to optimise the executable, it is to 
protect against programmer's errors. gcc will warn you if you try to 
modify a constant.

     Didier