title: Is this ->> an old operator or a typo/error?
body: <p>In the course of my reading I came accross <a href="http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/dr_051.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">WG14 Defect Report #51</a> written in 1993 (or perhaps 1893, they left off the century and millennium). In the code sample there, apparently an operator spelled <code>-&gt;&gt;</code> is used on a pointer to a <code>struct</code>. I can't find it in any operator precedence tables I've found, so I am wondering, is or was it ever an operator, and if so, what does (or did, as the case may be) this operator do?</p>
  
  <p>At first I thought it was a typo, but it is reproduced twice more in the text and another time in the code sample in the response to the question, and I have a hard time believing it just slipped past at least two C experts without being noticed, when it jumped out at a novice like me. It's also at the focal point of the code, very easy to notice, and was never corrected.</p>
  
  <p>Here is the code with added indentation:</p>
  
  <pre><code>#include &lt;stdlib.h&gt;
  
  struct A {
      char x[1];
  };
  
  main()
  {
      struct A *p = (struct A *) malloc(sizeof(struct A) + 100);
      p-&gt;&gt;x[5] = '?';  /* This is the key line [for both them and us] */
      return 0;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried to compile this code with both a C and C++ compiler and it failed to parse in either one. Perhaps this was some operator in an early version of C that isn't used any more?</p>
  
  <p>This feels suspiciously like the <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1642028/what-is-the-name-of-this-operator">What is the name of this operator: "-->"?</a> question, but I don't think this is a combination of two other operators, I don't see how it can be divided up and be valid.</p>