Re: extern const (Was: Re: [gcc-in-cxx]: patches from multi-target-4_4-branch)

[Joern Rennecke <amylaar at spamcop dot net>]

Quoting Ian Lance Taylor <iant@google.com>:

> Joern Rennecke <amylaar@spamcop.net> writes:
> > ...   Could we use a #define
> > for this?  E.g. put in system.h
> > #ifdef __cplusplus
> > #define CONST_VAR_DECL extern const
> > #else
> > #define CONST_VAR_DECL const
> > #endif
>
> Yes, that is certainly the way to go if it is in fact not safe to use
> "extern const int i = 1;" for all C compilers.  I hadn't planned to deal
> with this issue yet, but since you bring it up, we should decide whether
> that construct is safe, or whether we need the macro.

I think it would also be a better interim solution, since it is easier to
code, easier to switch experimentally, and easier to globally replace with
extern const if we decide that that is safe for all the C bootstrap compilers
we care about.