Void Main
      
      
        The CeePlusPlus standards say main() shall return an int. The construct "void main()" occupies an unregulated area between "vendor-specific extension" and "ill-formed".
      
      
        I have extracted a list of the real reasons, by me (PhlIp) and a few others, why students should take int main more seriously:
      
      
        void main ~~~. Use int main:
      
      
        - 
           causes illiteracy in lab mice
        
 
        - 
           inspires television networks to move reality shows to the next logical step: Human sacrifice
        
 
        - 
           will transmit the contents of your internet cache folders to the nearest repressed fundamentalist priest
        
 
        - 
           will precipitate the return of the Joe Isuzu commercials (1999/11/20)
        
 
        - 
           causes destructive thread recidivism in technical newsgroups
        
 
        - 
           will attract biker gangs to your granma's neighborhood
        
 
        - 
           is a capitalist plot
        
 
        - 
           convinces white supremacists to stay "in the closet" about their thing for Reggae music
        
 
        - 
           nutates the precession of the equinoxes
        
 
        - 
           has designs on your kid sister
        
 
        - 
           makes killer bees think you smell like Chanel No. 5
        
 
        - 
           will inspire mass media to get over this current cheerleader/gymnast thing
        
 
        - 
           denies workers control over the means of production
        
 
        - 
           relaxes the prohibitions against split infinitives (1999/04/24)
        
 
        - 
           is caused by orbiting microwave platforms that target the thermal resonance signature of your neurons
        
 
        - 
           makes Disney executives have vivid anxiety dreams about not litigating enough
        
 
        - 
           makes folks >still< think alien beings make crop circles
        
 
        - 
           uses NFL broadcasts without the expressed written consent of Fox Network
        
 
        - 
           will make your loved ones think you have been possessed by aliens
        
 
        - 
           will make you blind, grow hair on your palms, and convince you to vote Republican
        
 
        - 
           increases the chances air traffic controllers accidentally cross flight corridors directly over your house
        
 
        - 
           makes street lunatics think you are part of the conspiracy against them
        
 
        - 
           points the Hubble Space Telescope at your house
        
 
        - 
           makes IBM think they have a prayer of solving the Protein Folding Problem in less time than the Sun takes to burn out
        
 
        - 
           makes George Lucas think we can tell the difference between any of his StarWars movies
        
 
        - 
           makes your balls drop off
        
 
        - 
           inspires a remote tribe in Borneo to carve big wooden statues that look just like you
        
 
        - 
           causes Phlip's big toe to swell up like a balloon
        
 
        - 
           inspires Hollywood executives to sign off on yet another insipid live-action remake of an insipid 1970s cartoon
        
 
        - 
           has been cruely tested on charismatic dolphins and adorable baby seals
        
 
        - 
           has already caused the return of Joe Isuzu, as I prophesied on this newsgroup last year (2001/04/04)
        
 
        - 
           dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria
        
 
      
      
        But see VoidMainIssues.
      
      
      
        CategoryProgrammingLanguage CategoryLanguageImplementation