Hello,
This suggestion is obviously about typdefs and discusses a *theoretical*
implementation, well a few of them. Anyway please do read this though.
I'm really sorry for the poor structure, my hands are really cold and
I'm quite tired.
I understand that this issue has been discussed A LOT and there are ways
around the limitation, I suspect what I write is nothing new, I don't
claim to be the first ever.
Why not:
make an "optional keyword", "hard", have a meaning if before "typedef",
I suggest tokenising "hard" as a normal token (however it is processed
now why change it? I am not sure on GCCs exact grammar for c languages)
but if AND ONLY if it is before a "typdef" treat it differently, as far
as I know a typedef can only occur at the beginning of a statement so
this should mean it doesn't break anything.
It'd break something if put before "struct" obviously, because struct
need not occur at the beginning of a statement, I can't see the typdef
thing being a problem, it never occurs anywhere else, and this construct
need not be valid anywhere else.
Problems:
1)Not all compilers would be happy with this.
Fix:
I'm sure gcc must define something for the preprocessor that'll exist if
and only if GCC is the compiler? Use this to create a definition for
hard (as "hard") if and only if GCC is the compiler, else define "hard"
as an empty definition (nothing), this way any other compilers wont even
see the "hard" before a typedef. If GCC recognises half without a macro
this means those using just GCC would be fine but they need only put a
constant in a header file.
I am not sure how the preprocessor would handle a keyword named constant
("#define hard hard" is what I'm thinking? Wish I could try it now) but
I am certain "#define HARD hard" would work, while ugly this does make
compatibility easy.
Pros:
The joy of many.
Alec
Sorry again for the awful new-line structure, I'm tired and my fingers
are numb.
