Whatever happened to the 'entry' keyword?

Question

While cruising through my white book the other day, I noticed in the list of C keywords. entry is one of the keywords on that list.

It is reserved for future use. Thinking back to my Fortran days, there was a function of some sort that used an entry statement to make a second argument signature, or entry point into a function.

Is this what entry was originally intended to be used for? or something completely different?

What is the story on the entry keyword?

Answer 1

I had no idea, so I googled to find something about this. This is what I found.

First, it was included as a reserved keyword.

Q: What was the entry keyword mentioned in K&R1?
A: It was reserved to allow functions with multiple, differently-named entry points, but it has been withdrawn.

(From http://archives.devshed.com/forums/c-c-134/c-programming-faqs-371017.html.)

It was never standardized; some compilers used it, in a very personal way.

It was later declared obsolete, I guess.

Answer 2

In FORTRAN, "ENTRY" could declare a second entry point into a subroutine. It was a structured programming nightware, and fortunately C decided not to adopt it.