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Comment by PaulDavisThe1st | Hacker News Reader

That works if the call stack is only ever shallow (specifically, the owner is always the caller).

But the moment you've called

   hello_i_accept_pointers (&myvar)

you're now inside a callstack where the variable is a pointer, and there's no syntax to indicate that you're passing a pointer to the next callee.

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That's true; inside `hello_i_accept_pointers` there's no syntax at callsites to indicate that a mutable pointer is being passed. However, the variable being passed is of pointer type, which is readily apparent from the context of the function - the pointer parameter is declared in the same file, likely only lines above the callsite in question. This is still better than having to find the declaration of the called function, which is probably in a different file altogether.

what are these files that you speak of ? :))

seriously, even with trusty old emacs and ag(1), the declaration of the called function is a fraction of a second away, no matter where it lives.

But having it obvious at the call site means I don't even have to do that, dozens of times per day, every day.

It's something that's not easy to realize how useful it is until you actually do it. When working in a large codebase that consistently follows those rules it just makes code reading a breeze, it severely reduces the number of "context switches".

Obviously it's not the only way it can be done but it is a way and the benefits are significant.

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