Thread: What does the following syntax mean (function declared inside a function)

Code:

char ** parse(char *line) {
	char	*newstr();
	.
	.
	.
	.
}

char *newstr(char *s, int l) {
	.
	.
}

newstr is declared inside the function parse.

In the list of function prototypes in the beginning of the file, newstr is the only one undeclared.

What does it mean? Does it act like a function prototype? What's the advantage? How come newstr declared inside parse does not contain any parameters?

[Edit]
Might as well link where I found the source code
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/ob...de/ch09/smsh.h
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/ob...09/splitline.c