__STDC__ and non-strictly conforming ANSI C compilers
Henry Spencer
henry at utzoo.uucp
Sun Dec 18 14:18:25 AEST 1988
In article <12666 at bellcore.bellcore.com> sjs at ctt.bellcore.com (Stan Switzer) writes:
>The important question is whether a __STDC__ compiler can be counted
>upon to compile strictly conforming programs. The following fragment
>illustrates my point:
>
> # include <stdlib.h>
> int near( int i, int j ) {
> return ( abs(i-j) < 10 );
> }
>
>If "near" is a reserved keyword this will not compile even though it
>is strictly conforming...
Actually, it might, depending on your definition of "reserved keyword".
A truly devious compiler might turn off its predefined meaning for "near"
if "near" was encountered in a context indicating that the user was using
it himself. (It is admitted that the ice might be thin here. :-)) This
would provide magic keywords *without* breaking standard conformance.
--
"God willing, we will return." | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
-Eugene Cernan, the Moon, 1972 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry at zoo.toronto.edu
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