Re: C ABI: struct/union inconsistency

[Richard Henderson <rth at redhat dot com>]

On Fri, Sep 27, 2002 at 11:52:46AM -0700, Mark Mitchell wrote:
> My point was that I would like a header file that looks like:
> 
> extern "C" {
>  struct S {};
>  ...
> }
> 
> to have the same meaning in both languages; that's not possible if S has
> size zero in C.

It's also not possible if one writes

  extern "C" {
    struct S {
      const int i;
    };
  }

as they have different meanings in C and C++.  So I don't see that your
point necessarily holds.  The fact of the matter is that the two languages
do not line up 100%, and one has to live with it.

I'll ask some kernel developers what they think of this issue, but I
suspect that they'll be in favour of the status quo, and I'll have a
hard time arguing against that "merely" for compatibility with C++.


r~