pascal strings in C

[Andy]

Dear GCC Developers:

I'm working on porting a project which uses pascal-style strings in C++ 
code, for example like this:   unsigned char *str = "\phello";

Please could you tell me if it is possible to make GCC support these 
pascal strings.

I did some searches and noticed that a pascal string patch was submitted 
in 2001, but I don't know whether it made it into GCC.  I tried using the 
"-fpascal-strings" option with GCC, but it said it was unrecognized.  
What can I do?

I notice that Apple's version of GCC supports the "-fpascal-strings" 
option.  Has this feature been integrated into the main distribution?  I 
suppose I could try to use Apple's version of GCC, but that probably 
won't work because I need to compile for x86, not PowerPC.

Please reply to:  spamme416@optusnet.com.au

Thanks very much.

Andy