A Deficiency of the C Preprocessor

[Clayton Cramer]

I've got a complaint about the C preprocessor -- I doesn't support a
repetition for initializing data structures.

We are developing programs where an array of structures exists.

	#define BRKPTCOUNT	5
	struct .... FooBar[BRKPTCOUNT] = {....};

Everytime we change BRKPTCOUNT, we have to change the initialization data
for FooBar; if we give extra initialization data, we get complaints from the
compiler; if we don't give enough data, the rest of the structure isn't
initialized.

We've worked around this annoyance by defining a function that initializes
the FooBar, but this takes time and code to do at runtime something that
should be doable at compile time.  Something equivalent to the assembler
directive DUP would be ideal, since it would allow us to replace the
lines above with:

	#define BRKPTCOUNT	5
	struct .... FooBar[] = {5 DUP {....}};

and scrap the initialization code.

We COULD build our own preprocessor to take care of this, but a general
solution, perhaps as part of some future version of the ANSI C spec would 
be better.

Clayton E. Cramer

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.  You cannot
 strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.  You cannot help the wage
 earner by pulling down the wage payer.  You cannot further the brother-
 hood of man by encouraging class hatred.  You cannot keep of out of
 trouble by spending more than you earn.  You cannot build character and
 courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.  You cannot
 help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do
 for themselves."  -- Abraham Lincoln