Re: [Bug-gnulib] strftime merge from Emacs

[Paul Eggert]

Jim Meyering <address@hidden> writes:

> Does emacs still cater to compilers that don't support prototypes?

That's its style, but I have serious doubts that Emacs still works
with K&R C.  Here's one example: emacs's regex.c contains a macro that
looks like this:

#define PUSH_FAILURE_POINT(pattern, string_place)                       \
...                                                                     \
  DEBUG_PRINT2 ("  Push pattern %p: ", pattern);                        \
...

and K&R C will substitute both instances of "pattern", even the one
inside the string.  There are other examples of code in Emacs that
won't work with K&R.  But since nobody really uses K&R any more
(except perhaps in computer museums), this is not really a practical
issue now.


> I've been removing k&r support (PROTOTYPES, __P, etc.) from the coreutils
> for years without complaint.  As far as emacs is concerned, is it possible
> to remove such support from this file altogether?

I would say "yes".  (However, I'm not in charge of Emacs.  :-)


> Do any packages other than gcc and binutils cater to such old C compilers?

GCC itself no longer caters to K&R C compilers.  The GCC Steering
Committee voted in March that it is OK to assume C89 in all code in
GCC proper.  See:

http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2003-03/msg01508.html

I don't know about binutils.