Re: [Groff] understanding groff's source code

[Ulrich Lauther]

On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 09:05:48AM +0100, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> Hi Ulrich,
> 
> > In case of questions, should one ask on the list
> 
> I'd say ask here;  answers would be part of the public record.  These
> answers are all based on a quick look;  I don't know they're correct.
> 
> > However, not so for extract().
> 
>     node *node_list::extract()
>     {
>       node *temp = head;
>       head = tail = 0;
>       return temp;
>     }
> 
> The list is extracted, not a node;  a pointer to the first element, if
> any, is returned.  The caller can walk the list themselves.  The
> node_list forgets about those elements.
> 
Thanks for the explanation!

Things would be easier if there were minimal comments, like so:

        class node_list { // a singly linked list of nodes


        void node_list::append(node *n)
        // appends node n to the list
        

        node *node_list::extract()
        // removes all elements from the list, which thus becomes empty.
        // returns a chain of nodes that had been in the list, i.e., the first
        // element of that chain, or zero if the list was empty.

> Cheers,

  ulrich