[cfe-dev] #define behavior

[Hartmut Kaiser]

Neil,

> > > Standard C works on tokens, not text, so the code is invalid as
> > > * and = are two separate tokens.
> > 
> > The preprocessor works on preprocessor tokens (translation 
> phase 4), 
> > which are different from the tokens the compiler is working on. The 
> > preprocessor tokens are converted into tokens at 
> translation phase 7 
> > only. Any preprocessor token not matching the syntax of a 
> token is an 
> > error at this point.
> 
> Well, is undefined behaviour.  The standard has no concept of 
> error per se, only "must be diagnosed" and "failure to 
> successfully translate", the latter applying to #error exclusively.

Thanks for clarifying this.

> > Further, IIUC concatenating two tokens (using ##) forming another 
> > (invalid) pp token results in undefined behaviour in C90/C++ but is 
> > allowed in C99/C++09. Gcc issues a warning here (I'm not 
> sure about clang) for C90/C++.
> 
> There is no difference between C90 and C99 here.  I'm the 
> person that made it a hard error in GCC; it is not a warning. 
>  That is and was my preference.  :)

Ok, but it is allowed in C99, and undefined behaviour in C++98. Admittedly,
I was not sure about C90.

Regards Hartmut