Re: Have you ever had a bug OOPS

["David Thompson" <david.thompson1@worldnet.att.net>]

Wes Groleau <wwgrol@sparc01.ftw.rsc.raytheon.com> wrote :
>
> Someone pointed out that I goofed in my C syntax.
> Here is the correction:
>
> > some_file.h, line 1537:
> >
> >    define THE_MAX = 100
> >
This still isn't valid.  You meant #define (optionally plus space).
And the bug is that you put an = between the identifier and
the intended value, which is correct for a regular variable
but not for the rather different preprocessor syntax.

> > my_file.c, line whatever:
...
> >    goal=THE_MAX; /* set a new goal */
>
> And just in case it's obscure, the point was
> that after preprocessing, the error in the header file
> means one loop never ends, the other is stopped immediately,
> and goal is unchanged.  Of course, the second loop has an error
> of its own or it would not compile.
>
Not in Standard C.  Some (not all) "K&R1" preprocessors
might join a source character to a macro expansion like that,
but the Standard prohibits it (except if you ask for it by using
the "paste" operator ## on tokens _within_ a macro body).

AIUI on some embedded systems you get really lame old
C implementations, which might still do this; but you might
get no Ada implementation at all, which is hardly better.

--
- David.Thompson 1 now at worldnet.att.net