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From: rhoward@msd.gatech.edu (Robert L. Howard)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.windows.x
Subject: cpp, Using it to process shell scripts
Summary: #directive leaves a blank line on output.  WHY?
Keywords: comments,#directive,cpp,scripts
Message-ID: <11272@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Date: 12 Jul 90 17:16:48 GMT
Sender: news@prism.gatech.EDU
Followup-To: comp.unix.questions
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 22

When using cpp to process the source to a script file, cpp always
puts a blank line in the output for everytime it encounters a
#directive or a /*comment*/.  (This is SunOS 4.1)  Is this normal
behavior?  If so, why?  It really makes the resulting shell script 
messy with all those blank lines...

My manual suggests m4 as an alternative but I'm not sure it won't
do the same thing.  More importantly, this is a X11 shell script
with an Imakefile with all the predefined rules pointing to cpp
already.

If m4 is the correct choice, why didn't MIT choose to use it?

Inquiring minds want to know....

Thanks,
Robert
--
| Robert L. Howard             |    Georgia Tech Research Institute     |
| rhoward@msd.gatech.edu       |    MATD Laboratory                     |
| (404) 528-7165               |    Atlanta, Georgia  30332             |
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