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Re: C++ alternative tokens in the preprocessor
- To: zack at wolery dot cumb dot org
- Subject: Re: C++ alternative tokens in the preprocessor
- From: "Martin v. Loewis" <martin at loewis dot home dot cs dot tu-berlin dot de>
- Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 22:41:29 +0200
- CC: gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- References: <200007180742.JAA29205@loewis.home.cs.tu-berlin.de> <20000718011537.K7027@wolery.cumb.org> <200007181850.UAA01051@loewis.home.cs.tu-berlin.de> <20000718124510.U7027@wolery.cumb.org>
> This is not a good error message. It expects the user to know gritty
> details of the official grammar. I would much rather see something
> like
>
> a.cc:1:9: "and" is not a legal macro name in C++
This is slightly off-topic now, but I was going to make the comment
that I feel such an error message is inappropriate; in particular,
that use of the adjective "legal" is.
I believe it was RMS who once mentioned that the compiler should not
declare things "illegal"
(http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/1999-09n/msg00395.html), with "not legal"
probably being just as bad.
I always used "ill-formed", to describe the code and not its authors,
but that may be a bit technical.
I'd appreciate comments and recommendations from native speakers of
the English language what terminology would be acceptable.
Regards,
Martin