Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!keele!nott-cs!gas
From: gas@uk.ac.nott.cs (Alan Shepherd)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: extern "C"
Message-ID: <1990Oct15.064326.6878@cs.nott.ac.uk>
Date: 15 Oct 90 06:43:26 GMT
References: <1990Oct10.062518.23722@cs.nott.ac.uk> <13870@ulysses.att.com>
Sender: gas@cs.nott.ac.uk (Alan Shepherd)
Reply-To: gas@uk.ac.nott.cs (Alan Shepherd)
Organization: Department of Computer Science, Nottingham University
Lines: 36

In article <13870@ulysses.att.com>, ggs@ulysses.att.com (Griff Smith) writes:
|> In article <1990Oct10.062518.23722@cs.nott.ac.uk>, gas@cs.nott.ac.uk (Alan Shepherd) writes:
|> > 
|> > I've had several responses to my original question about extern "C"...
|> > ... However, all the solutions seem to rule out the possibility of using C
|> > header files within C++.
|> > 
|> > Alan Shepherd
|> 
|> I'm not sure what you're basing this on, since AT&T C++ 2.0 uses
|> standard C header files inside C++ wrappers that discard the useless C
|> function definitions.  If you have seen this solution and object to the
|> aesthetics, so be it.  Given that the wrapper would be necessary anyway
|> to supply declarations with full type checking, I find it hard to
|> quibble about the details.
|> -- 
|> Griff Smith	AT&T (Bell Laboratories), Murray Hill

My point is that you have to edit the C header files either manually
or automatically.  In some cases, automatic editing is not trivial.
For example, we use the isode OSI development package extensively
which is written in old style C and hence the header files require a
lot of editing to even be incorporated using extern "C".  Since the
software producer does not support C++, this has to be done each time
a new version is released.

Understandably, I would rather not have to do this.  Since g++ does
not implement extern "C" in the same way and thus it allows inclusion
of old-style C headers, I would much rather use it than AT&T's version
if it were possible.  Unfortunately, we also use some commercial
software which rules this choice out.  G++ has several other
advantages, not least of which is that it is a compiler rather than a
translator which greatly facilitates debugging.  For the more
pecuniary minded, it is also free !

Alan Shepherd