Re: GCC's statement expression extension

[Michael Meissner <meissner at cygnus dot com>]

On Thu, Jul 27, 2000 at 09:42:31AM -0700, Mark Mitchell wrote:
> >>>>> "Joseph" == Joseph S Myers <jsm28@cam.ac.uk> writes:
> 
>     Joseph> Perhaps these facilities can be deprecated / removed first
>     Joseph> in the C++ compiler.
> 
> I agree -- that's the conclusion I'm leaning towards.  That's where
> the problems are most severe, where the language provides other
> alternatives, and where the user community is least invested in these
> language features.  We do need buy-in from the glibc people, and
> probably the Linux kernel people, if we're going to do that, since
> those headers wind up in lots of C++ programs.
> 
> This isn't really my call (which is a good thing).  I'm just finding
> out how many people agree.  Even before touching C++, I'd want Jason
> Merrill's agreement.  Before doing anything to C, we'd certainly need
> the SC to sign off -- and I don't plan on raising the issue, at least
> in C, based on these discussions.

Speaking for the users, I would argue that removal of statement expressions,
even in C++ only, is a supremely bad idea.  I would hesitate to guess how many
people use these features right now, but I would be willing to bet it more than
the people reading this mailing list.  Misdesigned or not, it is an incredibly
useful feature, and people use it.  Even if there are better ways of doing it,
won't change all of the extant code out in the world.  We are still supporting
(unhappily perhaps) non-ISO C in the compiler, 10 1/2 years after the first
ANSI C standard was ratified.

-- 
Michael Meissner, Red Hat, Inc.
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