const comparison in C and C++

[Doug Schmidt]

Hi,

   Would someone please explain to me the rationale behind C++'s
allowance of ``const's'' objects for use with specifying array size
declarations, as opposed to ANSI-C's reject of this construct?  For
example, the following is legal C++:

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const int Bar = 100;
int Foo[Bar]; // declares an array of 100 ints

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However, this does not work with the ANSI-Cesque compilers I've 
tried (gcc, for example).  I'm interested to know the conceptual
differences between the two languages on this point.

thank you,

   Doug Schmidt