Reserved names in X3J11

Karl Heuer karl at haddock.ISC.COM
Wed May 25 13:41:17 AEST 1988


In article <211 at proxftl.UUCP> bill at proxftl.UUCP (T. William Wells) writes:
>Specifically, if you define a function whose name matches a
>function name in one of the more esoteric libraries and you do
>not use something from the same library, all of the C compilers
>that I am familiar with will not give you grief.

In such case, an ANSI compiler is also likely to silently do what you expect,
with the same level of guarantee: if you know enough about the internals to
know that it's safe, then it's safe.

>And my main complaint is not with the fact that names are reserved but with
>the fact that SO many of them are.

I agree that namespace pollution is a problem.  Fortunately, it seems that
the macro names are reserved only when the corresponding header is included.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl at haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint



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