Re: Is this really necessary

On 8/14/21 4:33 PM, Juha Nieminen wrote:
> Keith Thompson <[email protected]> wrote:
>> In the C++11 standard, the section is:
>>
>>     17.5.1.5                                [structure.see.also]
>>
>>     Paragraphs labeled ?See also:? contain cross-references to
>>     the relevant portions of this International Standard and the ISO
>>     C standard, which is incorporated into this International Standard
>>     by reference.
> 
> I understand that to mean "the referenced parts should be considered
> part of this standard as well". In other words, *only* the referenced
> parts.
> 
> I could be wrong, of course.

As Tim pointed out, that interpretation is inconsistent with the use of
the singular verb - "referenced parts" is plural. There's a simple,
obvious singular thing that is the corresponding subject, and that's
"the ISO C standard".

As Keith pointed out, while this is linguistically correct, it's
probably not the intent. Virtually the entirety of section 6 of the C
standard is duplicated in the C++ standard, with modifications that in
many places make it incompatible with the the wording in the C standard,
making it questionable what it would mean for section 6 to be
incorporated by reference. The changed wording in C++2017 is almost
certainly what was intended all along.