[OT] C question (typedef & structs)

[Bill Moran]

Lowell Gilbert wrote:
> Bill Moran <wmoran at potentialtech.com> writes:
> 
> 
>>1) What's the difference between:
>>
>>struct customStruct {
>>     int RecID;
>>     char *Name;
>>};
>>
>>and
>>
>>typedef struct customStruct {
>>     int RecID;
>>     char *Name;
>>};
>>
>>??
>>
>>I had the latter, but when I started moving my code into
>>different files to reorganize things, gcc started giving
>>me warnings.  The warnings went away when I moved to the
>>former.  I can't quite figure out what the difference is.
>>Is one correct and the other not?
> 
> I'm not sure whether the second is illegal or not, but in any case it
> doesn't make any sense

Oddly enough, that's about what the error gcc gave me said.

<snip>

> If you're sticking to strictly ANSI C like this, the comp.lang.c
> newsgroup is a good place to go.  More useful is its FAQ, which 
> you can find at "http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/faq.html".  There
> are other newsgroups on C, including one for learners, but I don't
> have the precise name at hand.

Thanks.  That's another excellent link!

> A good book might be a better bet, though.  Both Kernighan & Ritchie
> and Harbison & Steele have discussions of typedefs that show how to
> use them with structures.

Heh.  I'll look into those.  The book I have seems good most of the
time, but I wasn't getting a real understanding of typedef from it.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com