Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!dcatla!holos0!lbr
From: lbr@holos0.uucp (Len Reed)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix
Subject: Function Prototypes and SCO Xenix-386 C
Keywords: C, ANSI
Message-ID: <1989Jul27.171720.1948@holos0.uucp>
Date: 27 Jul 89 17:17:20 GMT
Reply-To: lbr@holos0.UUCP (Len Reed)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Holos Software, Atlanta
Lines: 28

After several months in the land of MS-DOS, I'm back working on the
SCO Xenix 386 system.  One of the pluses (and there are few) of working on
MS-DOS was the ANSI extensions of Microsoft C 5.1.  I really got to
like strong typing of arguments.

The Xenix-386 cc command will not support function prototypes if I
use -M3 (generate 80386 code).  This certainly means that cc is forking
a different compiler, and an older one, for -M2 than for -M3.  The -M3
version generates lots of syntax error messages for a line like:
   void my_function ( char *, int **, struct foo *, int);

I am unhappy that the compiler for the new machine is more backward than
the 80286 version.  An 80386 compiler should be far easier to do since
you don't have to worry about near and far and 64K segments and stupid
register restrictions like "you can say [BP+DI] but not [BP+CX]."

Even worse, though, is the documentation.  The manuals go on and on about
ANSI and function prototypes, but nowhere do they say anything about the
stuff not working with -M3.  The compiler switches are documented in several
places, and every list is different.

What's the deal here?  Am I missing the fourth list of compiler switches
that has the magic key?  Is SCO doing anything about this?
-- 
Len Reed
Holos Software, Inc.
Voice: (404) 496-1358
UUCP: ...!gatech!holos0!lbr