Comment by pizlonator
5 months ago
The problem is incorrectly assuming that the spec is meaningful in some kind of rigorous way.
It’s not. All that matters is what C compilers actually do and what real C programs expect.
This is a good thing. It creates a culture where the two sides meet each other where they’re at
We also have a very limited number of compilers and a small number of prevalent architectures today. As long as you know the behavior of the target compiler and architecture, the behavior is defined, it's just not specified.
This is true.
But why I’m saying has always been true. What has changed is that the effective portability of C and C++ code has increased due to the reduction in number of compilers and arches