Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!claris!apple!lenoil
From: lenoil@Apple.COM (Robert Lenoil)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: External constants (was: Does extern "const" allocate storage?)
Message-ID: <7736@apple.Apple.Com>
Date: 18 Mar 88 23:51:39 GMT
References: <7712@apple.Apple.Com> <3034@haddock.ISC.COM>
Reply-To: lenoil@apple.UUCP (Robert Lenoil)
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 16

In article <3034@haddock.ISC.COM> karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer) writes:
>>Does
>>  extern const int foo;
>>expect to be linking to an external constant, or is it linking to an external
>>integer, and semantically prohibiting assignment to that integer?
>
>What do you mean by "linking to an external constant"?

Forgive me for lapsing into 8088  assembler, but it's the easiest way to
answer this:

public	foo		;give foo extern scope
foo	dw	3	;foo is an external int
foo	equ	3	;foo is an external constant

In the first example, the address of foo is made public.  In the second, foo
is a constant and its value (3) is made public, i.e. foo is an external
constant.