strange compiler bug

[Larry Jones]

In article <1064 at tuewsd.lso.win.tue.nl>, wsinpdb at lso.win.tue.nl (Paul de Bra) writes:
> When compiling metafont on a 386, using the AT&T (development system 4.1.6)
> c-compiler, I get bogus errors like this:
> 
> "mf2.c", line 1811: illegal character: 043 (octal)
> "mf2.c", line 1811: cannot recover from earlier errors: goodbye!
> 
> I compiled the stuff with gcc without getting any errors.
> Also, when I say
> 
> cc -P -I.. mf2.c; cc -O -I.. -c mf2.i
> 
> I get no errors, so just by splitting the compilation in 2 supposedly
> equivalent parts the errors go away.

Well, 043 is '#', so it would seem that you have some
preprocessor directives that aren't getting interpreted by the
preprocessor but are instead making their way into the compiler
which is choking on them.  The place that I've seen this most
often is when the '#' isn't in column 1.  Since the problem goes
away when you run the file through the preprocessor twice (the
net result of your double cc), I would guess that there is a
comment before the '#' which gets removed by the first cpp so
that the '#' is in column 1 for the second pass.
----
Larry Jones                         UUCP: uunet!sdrc!scjones
SDRC                                      scjones at SDRC.UU.NET
2000 Eastman Dr.                    BIX:  ltl
Milford, OH  45150-2789             AT&T: (513) 576-2070
"You know how Einstein got bad grades as a kid?  Well MINE are even WORSE!"
-Calvin