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

On 22/09/2024 16:11, Kaz Kylheku wrote:

On 2024-09-22, David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> wrote:

I am not suggesting overuse of braces.  I am suggesting /good/ use of them.
>
<https://www.synopsys.com/blogs/software-security/understanding-apple-goto-fail-vulnerability-2.html>
>
That's perhaps the most famous example of the havoc caused by omitting
useful braces.
>
Consistency and clarity is important.  So is maintainability.  Suppose,
for example, you want to add a line "attempts++;" alongside the "ok++;"
line.  When the braces are there, the change is exactly that - add the
new line you want.  Without the original braces, you are now making
changes to the structural syntax of the code as well when you add in
original braces - or you are making a mistake in the code.

 My super advanced text editor from the future isn't letting me do that:
    if (failed)
     WARN("failed because...");
   else
     ok++;
   attempts++; // automatic deindent
 When I add a line after ok++, it deindents it to be at the same
indentation level as the if, before letting me type any content into it.
 OK, I lied about the super advanced from the future. It's just Vim.
 Also GCC has been able to diagnose misleading indentation for some
years now.
 Between those two, there is nothing to worry about; just concentrate on
whether it looks prettier without the braces or with.
 

So, everyone has to write code exactly to the C standard.
But when it comes to more practical matters, it's OK to depend on the arbitrary characteristics and abilities of whichever one of 1001 different text editors we happen to be using.
Or we have to use a specific compiler with a specific set of options.
 > Also GCC has been able to diagnose misleading indentation for some
 > years now.
How many years was that out of the last 52? How exactly do you turn it on? Since -Wall -Wpedantic -Wextra doesn't report it.
It is a failure in the design of the language. You can't really depend on ad hoc features of the tools you use to create and compile source code.
At least guidelines can be used such as always using braces, then errors can occur less often.
(I've been bitten by this endless times when trying to add debugging statements to existing code. If that code consistently used braces, then it wouldn't happen.)