13 lines
668 B
Plaintext
13 lines
668 B
Plaintext
nasal demons
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n. Recognized shorthand on the Usenet group comp.std.c for any unexpected
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behavior of a C compiler on encountering an undefined construct. During a
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discussion on that group in early 1992, a regular remarked When the compiler
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encounters [a given undefined construct] it is legal for it to make demons
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fly out of your nose (the implication is that the compiler may choose any
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arbitrarily bizarre way to interpret the code without violating the ANSI C
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standard). Someone else followed up with a reference to nasal demons , which
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quickly became established. The original post is web-accessible at
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http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en selm=10195%40ksr.com.
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