Re: how to make a macro work as a single line if stmt without braces

On 09/21/24 2:54 PM, Keith Thompson wrote:

 One reason to "overuse" braces is that you can easily add another
statement.  If you write:
      if (failed)
          WARN("failed because...");
     else
          ok++;
 and later decide you need two statements in the else clause, you then
need to add braces.  If they're already there, you don't.

Adding braces in this situation is _incomparably_ easier than splitting an annoying single-line `if` statement into multiple lines, discovered during an interactive debugging session. Which is something you yourself described as "easy enough" below.

What you call "Egyptian" braces is the style used by the creators of the
language

Firstly, this is style. Being a "creator of the language" does not make one an authority on code formatting style.
Secondly, most people pick up "the style used by the creators of the language" from the code samples used in the 2nd edition of K&R book. And, as we know, "the creators of the language" went a little lazy here. The samples were considered of "low importance" and fell victim to the tightening publishing schedules in front of the looming "threat" of the upcoming ANSI standard. The code samples were never properly updated to match the style and spirit of modern C.
This is BTW, the reason we have to deal with that pesky and atrocious manner to cast the result of `malloc` - another practice erroneously believed to be "the style used by the creators of the language".

and in a *lot* of open source software.  Even if you don't like
the style, you'll need to deal with it.
I have my own fairly strong preferences about brace placement, but the
most important rule is to follow the conventions of the code I'm working
on.

Certainly. It is not a good practice to force your own style onto someone else's code or an already existing code. Still, in most reasonably organized professional development environments personal preferences are normally welcomed with certain granularity. It is usually organized on "per translation unit" basis.
--
Best regards,
Andrey