From 7997317846548353465 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII X-Google-Thread: f78e5,fbc32fc9914fa748 X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2000-12-08 11:48:04 PST Path: supernews.google.com!sn-xit-02!sn-xit-03!supernews.com!cabal10.airnews.net!news.airnews.net!cabal14.airnews.net!news.airnews.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!dispose.news.demon.net!demon!news.demon.co.uk!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: Jack Klein Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Subject: Re: Preprocessor directive and newline Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2000 19:47:40 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet Approved: Fergus Henderson , moderator of comp.std.c++ Message-ID: References: <90onv1$dci$1@front7.grolier.fr> X-Trace: mail2news.demon.co.uk 976304868 mail2news:24869 mail2news mail2news.demon.co.uk X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Mail2News-Path: news.demon.net!mulga.cs.mu.oz.au X-Authentication-Warning: mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU: fjh set sender to devnull@stump.algebra.com using -f X-Robomod: STUMP, ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov) X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.6/32.525 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 05:06:09 GMT X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net id FAA02153 X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU id QAA02898 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU id GAA11765 Lines: 41 Xref: supernews.google.com comp.std.c++:2835 On Thu, 7 Dec 2000 19:27:34 GMT, "Fran=E7ois-Xavier Callewaert" wrote in comp.std.c++: >=20 > Why does the standard C++ require that a preprocessor directive be the > only "thing" on a line(16.1) ? >=20 > I can readily understand why it should be the last "thing" on a line, > but why should it also be the first ? >=20 > Appart from the fact that the following line of code is probably harde= r to > read then the legal alternative is it somehow bad ? >=20 > void func(); #define BAR >=20 > Thanks for any enlightenment Consider that the C++ preprocessor, inherited from C, is actually a language of its own and knows nothing at all about the actual syntax of C or C++, only about tokens. Now consider this: char *x =3D "Hello this is #define BAR"; Then again, why not? C programmers have managed to live with this for more than 25 years without serious difficulty (although the period for C++ programmers is about 10 years shorter). Jack Klein --=20 Home: http://jackklein.home.att.net --- [ comp.std.c++ is moderated. To submit articles, try just posting with ] [ your news-reader. If that fails, use mailto:std-c++@ncar.ucar.edu ] [ --- Please see the FAQ before posting. --- ] [ FAQ: http://www.research.att.com/~austern/csc/faq.html ] [ Note that the FAQ URL has changed! Please update your bookmarks. ]