Thread: What is a "old-style format list"

When I make this mistake in C programming:

Code:

void myF(); //Extra semi colon here
{
printf("hello");
}

I get this error in MSVC:

error C2447: '{' : missing function header (old-style formal list?)

WTF is a old-style formal list ? What did the syntax use to be? I was under the impression C syntax hasn't changed for a quite while. No other syntax errors give you this kind of error message.

C existed before there was a C standard. I suspect the "old-style formal list" is referring to the fact that this, in standard C;

Code:

int Function(int x, char *y)
{
     /* whatever */
}

was actually expressed in pre-standard C as;

Code:

int Function(x, y)
   int x;
   char *y;
{
     /* whatever */
}

The lines declaring types of arguments were referred to as a "formal argument list".