Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!stan!dancer!imp
From: imp@dancer.Solbourne.COM (Warner Losh)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: extern
Message-ID: <1990Jul9.190744.1437@Solbourne.COM>
Date: 9 Jul 90 19:07:44 GMT
References: <16994@haddock.ima.isc.com> <1990Jul5.044045.1534@acc.stolaf.edu> <17037@haddock.ima.isc.com>
Sender: news@Solbourne.COM
Organization: Solbourne Computer, Inc.
Lines: 33

In article <1990Jul5.044045.1534@acc.stolaf.edu> hannum@haydn.psu.edu
(Charles Hannum) writes: 
>"... preprocessor games, ..."?  It's not a game.  It's a perfectly
>ligitimate [sic] use of the C preprocessor.  If we weren't supposed
>to use it, it wouldn't be included (based C's minimalist philosophy).

Yah, right.  And I'd suppose that you think the following is also
legal and not a "preprocessor game":

#include "pascal.h"

main()
BEGIN
	int foo;

	IF (foo) THEN
	BEGIN
		WRITE ("Fooing today\n");
	END
	ELSE
	BEGIN
		WRITE ("No foos today\n");
	END
END

The above, while strictly speaking IS 'C' (depending on the defines in
pascal.h, that is), I'd hate to have to maintain something like that.
#define EXTERN extern is a gross preprocessor game that should be
avoided, just as the above cute pascal example should be avoided.

--
Warner Losh		imp@Solbourne.COM
Boycott Lotus.		#include <std/disclaimer>