__STDC__ and non-conforming ANSI C compilers

[Mike Coffin]

This is really getting messy.  I originally advocated setting
__STDC__ = 0 to indicate "almost ANSI", or "so close to ANSI we doubt
if you'll notice."  This was rejected essentially on the grounds that
if you set it to 0 it is easy to write code that accidentally thinks
that it is 1.  (I.e., using #ifdef instead of #if.)

Now people are instead advocating setting it to 1 even if the compiler
is nonconforming, so long as the non-conformance is "minor" or
"harmless."  Yuk!  I think it is a BIG mistake to define
__STDC__ = 1 if the compiler is nonconforming.  Please don't lie to
my code.

We started by arguing that "#ifdef __STDC__" should guarantee that the
compiler is conforming --- no ifs ands or buts.  The point was made
that if it wasn't ANSI, no one knows WHAT it might be.  Now we're
saying that even if you carefully write "#if __STDC__ = 1", you can't
expect to get ANSI compliance.

This sounds very bad.
-- 
Mike Coffin				mike at arizona.edu
Univ. of Ariz. Dept. of Comp. Sci.	{allegra,cmcl2}!arizona!mike
Tucson, AZ  85721			(602)621-2858