Writing a (valid) C program without main()

Discussion (6 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

eska•about 1 hour ago

Note that this is not a “valid” C program according to the standard. The standard allows for freestanding and hosted environments. Freestanding allows for the entry point to be called something else than main, but there are other requirements. See section 4 and 5 of a draft if interested.

asveikau•about 1 hour ago

I think the definition of "valid" may differ. Is this a standard conforming C program? No. Did you use implementation details of your platform to create a program that loads and runs correctly? Sure.

Most interesting C programs violate the standard in some way though.

elpocko•about 1 hour ago

>Most interesting C programs violate the standard in some way though.

Wow, who counted them and decided what is or isn't interesting? And would the interesting programs still be interesting if they didn't violate the standard?

asveikau•12 minutes ago

I guess what I'm saying is that some common practices are under specified and live in gray areas of the standard, and practicing programmers rely on those behaviors.

Sometimes other standards like POSIX cover the gaps.

pechay•about 1 hour ago

All C programs are interesting. The first potentially non-interesting program in C is interesting because it's the first non-interesting one. :)

pishpash•about 1 hour ago

This isn't making a C program. It's using C tools and assembly tools to make an executable.

Writing a (valid) C program without main()

⚡ Community Insights

Discussion (6 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews