Here's one that confounded me.  I wanted to link a number of records of the
same type.  Each record would have the same structure and would contain a
pointer to the next record.  I tried to implement it like this:

struct event {
        int     timing:
        int     count;
        struct  event *next;

Of course, the compiler complains because the definition of the structure is
incomplete at that point.  From a practical point of view this shouldn't matter since the space into which the record will go be allocated memory.  Does this
mean that I can define the pointer 'next' as char * and then do some coercion
in my code. I won't be using these structures in an array so all I feel
I really need is some pointer into memory.  

Or should I define a similar structure and reference a pointer to it?  This
does present the problem of what the struct * would have to be in that
definition.

I suspect that this subject has been discussed before but it didn't have my
attention at the time.

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If your compiler rejects this, it's badly broken.

There's nothing wrong with declaring a pointer to an (as yet)
unknown structure.
--
                                --Andrew Koenig

This should work. Your compiler is broken.
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Defective compiler.  A pointer to an incomplete type is perfectly proper,
although a variable of the type itself isn't.  (Especially not in this
case, of course!)  Your struct is quite normal and common C practice.
--
That's not a joke, that's      |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology

What do you mean, "of course"?  That is a perfectly valid C construct and
is in fact quite common.

Some deficient compilers do have a problem with such constructs, and there
are a number of work-arounds possible.  One is

struct event;   /* incomplete type to get entry into symbol table */
struct event {
        struct event *next;     /* should be accepted now */

A perfectly legal construct.  However, notice the colon rather than
the semicolon after the first line

        int timing:

I realize that this was typed for mailing and the typo may not exist
in the original, but there may be some other typo that is squirreling
things.  Look real carefully.

Some older compilers get sick if the same name is used twice
in two different structures, and that may be causing the problem as
well.
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John Mundt   Teachers' Aide, Inc.  P.O. Box 1666  Highland Park, IL

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