void main()

[swgh]

consider this code:

#include<iostream.h>

using namspace std;

void main()
{
cout << "Look at me I am a pig!" << endl;
return;
}

anyway, my mate has a very old borland compiler I think its 2.2 or somthing, and he compiles that and it works fine.

but i was told if you voided main, the compiler would have a fit at you, and tell you that main must return an int.

It will not work on my compiler or others, but why was it accepted on that compiler?

[pianorain]

Because that compiler isn't fully compliant with the standard.

[Hammer]

http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/...&id=1043284376

Just because the compiler doesn't complain, doesn't mean the code is correct.

[ILoveVectors]

you answered your own question, because its old

[Jaqui]

yup, void main() is a defunct usage.

silly really, unless the app crashes, main only closes clean, requiring it to return a clean exit signal is a waste.

having the option to return or not would be better. but the cpu cycles to make sure everything shut down to be able to return a clean shutdown code is only really usefull during development and testing. once you are in production that's just wasting cpu cycles, as it should be closing clean if you coded and tested correctly.

just my 2 bits.

[ILoveVectors]

and its a good point but no matter how well its written someone
somewhere will crash it for whatever reason.

[Jaqui]

yup.

which is why the return was made a requirement.

as rich cook put it:

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

[major_small]

this is what my compiler says about it:

jshao@MCP ~/Programming/C++ $ g++ test.cpp -Wall -W -ansi -o test.exe
test.cpp:4: error: `main' must return `int'
test.cpp:4: error: return type for `main' changed to `int'

and yes, those are errors, not warnings--compilation isn't completed.

and just for reference, the code:

#include<iostream>

void main()
{
        std::cout<<"hello world"<<std::endl;
}