Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Character Sets
Message-ID: <1989May30.001455.26579@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <4623@freja.diku.dk> <12.UUL1.3#5077@aussie.UUCP> <10331@smoke.BRL.MIL> <26621@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: Tue, 30 May 89 00:14:55 GMT

In article <26621@watmath.waterloo.edu> rbutterworth@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ray Butterworth) writes:
>Note that the Standard is defined in terms of what a compiler must do
>with a conforming program.  It does not dictate much about what a
>compiler must do with programs that do not conform to the Standard.
>
>In particular, it does not prevent any standard compiler from accepting
>identifiers with other characters in them so long as those characters
>could not legally appear in the same place in a conforming program.
>
>...one would expect the compiler to have
> an option that enables warnings about such non-standard extensions...

Note the wording in 2.1.1.3, which implies (subject to the interpretation
of some of the terms) that a compiler is in fact *required* to produce at
least one warning for any input file that violates the Standard's syntax
rules or constraints.  That doesn't mean it has to refuse to compile it,
mind you.
-- 
Van Allen, adj: pertaining to  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
deadly hazards to spaceflight. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu