|  |  9.1.4 Function Definitions 
As a stylistic convention, the return types for all function definitions
should be on a separate line.  The main reason for this is that it makes
it very easy to find the functions in source file, by looking for
a single identifier at the start of a line followed by an open
parenthesis:
 
 |  | $ egrep '^[_a-zA-Z][_a-zA-Z0-9]*[ \t]*\(' error.c
set_program_name (const char *path)
error (int exit_status, const char *mode, const char *message)
sic_warning (const char *message)
sic_error (const char *message)
sic_fatal (const char *message)
 | 
 
There are emacs lisp functions and various code analysis tools, such as
ansi2knr(see section 9.1.6 K&R Compilers), which rely on this
formatting convention, too.  Even if you don't use those tools yourself,
your fellow developers might like to, so it is a good convention to
adopt. 
 |