Re: C23 thoughts and opinions - why so conservative?

On 24/05/2024 17:22, Michael S wrote:

On Fri, 24 May 2024 17:57:35 +0200
David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> wrote:

>
>
I can't say I have ever seen it as an effort.  Almost all my C
"modules" come in pairs - "file.h" and "file.c".  All non-local
variables (and all functions) are either static and declared only in
"file.c", or they are externally linked and have an "extern"
declaration in "file.h" and a definition (with or without
initialisation) in "file.c" (which #includes "file.h").  It is a very
simple and clean arrangement, easily checked by gcc warnings, and
there are never any undetected conflicts.
>

 Declaration/definition pair is repeating yourself, which is not a good
think.
Of course, the same applies to declaration/definition of externally
visible functions, but somehow in case of functions I am more tolerant
to repetitions than in case of variable. Probably, a psychological
phenomenon - I feel that functions are less trivial, so repetition is
less wasteful.
But I'd like to get rid of these repetitions to, I just did not figure
out a way to do it that does not compromise even more important concern
of seperation between interface and implementation (yes, I dislike Java
for that reason too).
>

I normally use a private systems language which some here have claimed is just C with a different syntax.
Nevertheless, this particular problem has been solved:
* There is only a single definition of any function, variable, type, struct, enum or macro
* No separate declarations are needed. Definitions can appear in any order
* There are no header files
* Exported definitions have a 'global' atribute
It also has a module scheme so that, for example, only the lead module of a program needs to be submitted to the compiler.
C's facilities for this stuff are quite crude. It would be difficult to retro-fit a scheme like mine.
At best a separate preprocessing pass can done before normal compilation, which can produce the necessary declarations. Or perhaps a clever IDE can generate some of this stuff.
But working only with the raw language as it is now, the tidiest solution is the .h/.c file pairs that have been mentioned.