Re: Is ANSI C support still needed?

[Bram Moolenaar]

David Demelier wrote:

> On Sun, 2018-04-15 at 12:43 +0200, Bram Moolenaar wrote:
> > For a long time Vim code was made to be compiled with ANSI C (also
> > known
> > as C89 and ISO C90).  This means it can also be compiled on very old
> > systems.  And since it wasn't too much work to support it, that was
> > the
> > choice.
> 
> C99 being 19 years old should be the default for a while. To me, I
> don't see any reason to support C89 nowadays. Even MS has finally added
> C99 in recent VisualStudio versions ;)

It's this "in recent VisualStudio" that worries me.  So C99 support was
lacking for many years, and even now some things are "optional".

Users may be stuck with an older compiler for many reasons.  Sticking
with C89 is putting the level too low, but requiring a full C99 compiler
is too much.

We cannot rely on all compilers to support all C99 features.
We will have to pick the ones that we can use.

I'll make some patches to introduce C99 features, so that we can check
what actually works.

-- 
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Re: Is ANSI C support still needed?

[David Demelier]

On Sun, 2018-04-15 at 12:43 +0200, Bram Moolenaar wrote:
> For a long time Vim code was made to be compiled with ANSI C (also
> known
> as C89 and ISO C90).  This means it can also be compiled on very old
> systems.  And since it wasn't too much work to support it, that was
> the
> choice.
> 

C99 being 19 years old should be the default for a while. To me, I
don't see any reason to support C89 nowadays. Even MS has finally added
C99 in recent VisualStudio versions ;)

Regards,

-- 
David

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Re: Is ANSI C support still needed?

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi Bram and all,

On Sun, 15 Apr 2018 12:43:23 +0200
Bram Moolenaar  wrote:

> Hello Vimmers,
> 
> For a long time Vim code was made to be compiled with ANSI C (also known
> as C89 and ISO C90).  This means it can also be compiled on very old
> systems.  And since it wasn't too much work to support it, that was the
> choice.
> 
> Now that we are adding checks for C89 compliance, it turns out that we
> already are using some C99 features, such as the "long long" type.
> Also, many libraries produce warnings when enforcing C89.  That means
> using C89 is starting to become a hassle.  So, the question comes up: is
> it still worth it?
> 
> If you CANNOT build Vim with a C99 compiler, please speak up!
> If I don't hear about such cases, I think we are better off using C99 as
> the standard.
> 
> Note that if we go with C99, we still need to decide what features we
> will actually use, since C99 compliance was lacking for quite a while
> (esp. in MS-Visual C).  That's not going to make this easier.
> 

+1 for C99 from me, but I am using recent Linux systems mostly.

-- 
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Is ANSI C support still needed?

[Bram Moolenaar]

Hello Vimmers,

For a long time Vim code was made to be compiled with ANSI C (also known
as C89 and ISO C90).  This means it can also be compiled on very old
systems.  And since it wasn't too much work to support it, that was the
choice.

Now that we are adding checks for C89 compliance, it turns out that we
already are using some C99 features, such as the "long long" type.
Also, many libraries produce warnings when enforcing C89.  That means
using C89 is starting to become a hassle.  So, the question comes up: is
it still worth it?

If you CANNOT build Vim with a C99 compiler, please speak up!
If I don't hear about such cases, I think we are better off using C99 as
the standard.

Note that if we go with C99, we still need to decide what features we
will actually use, since C99 compliance was lacking for quite a while
(esp. in MS-Visual C).  That's not going to make this easier.

-- 
hundred-and-one symptoms of being an internet addict:
179. You wonder why your household garbage can doesn't have an
 "empty recycle bin" button.

 /// Bram Moolenaar -- b...@moolenaar.net -- http://www.Moolenaar.net   \\\
///sponsor Vim, vote for features -- http://www.Vim.org/sponsor/ \\\
\\\  an exciting new programming language -- http://www.Zimbu.org///
 \\\help me help AIDS victims -- http://ICCF-Holland.org///

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