Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!oliveb!3comvax!bridge2!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: getch() and getche() in MSC 4.0
Keywords: *##%@^!&ing functions!
Message-ID: <305@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 25 Oct 88 19:16:40 GMT
References: <10508@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <10523@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <7357@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 47

>Stupid, hell.  Don't you wish that every C system had some standard,
>easy way to check which "fcns" are macros?

Many of them do; it's called "the manual".   For instance, from SunOS 4.0
(I suspect these items go back to the V7 documentation):

DESCRIPTION
     getc() returns the next character (that is, byte)  from  the
     named  input  stream, as an integer.  It also moves the file
     pointer,  if  defined,  ahead  one  character   in   stream.
     getchar()  is  defined as getc(stdin).  getc and getchar are
     macros.

...

BUGS
     Because it is implemented as a macro, getc() treats a stream
     argument  with  side  effects  incorrectly.   In particular,
     getc(*f++) does not work sensibly.  fgetc() should  be  used
     instead.

What do you mean by "check"?  Do you mean

#if "getchar is a macro"
	code that works if "getchar" is a macro...
#else
	code that doesn't...
#endif

If so, try

#ifdef getchar
	code that works if "getchar" is a macro...
#else
	code that doesn't...
#endif

although it would be better to just write

	code that works if "getchar" is a macro...

and be done with it.

>That lint warned you about such problems?

Well, yeah, it'd be nice if "lint" warned about attempts to dereference
null pointers, too, and misspellings in character strings, and....