Re: va_list *

[Tim Janik <timj gtk org>]

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008, Ryan Lortie wrote:

> ISO C99 (footnote 215, §7.15) says that this program is valid and should
> print out 1, 2, 3...

Note that GLib can currently *not* rely on C99 features.
That's a pity, but "no" is the oucome of our last discussion
on this topic:
  http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2006-January/msg00057.html

> ""
>  Collects a variable argument value from a va_list. We have to
>  implement the varargs collection as a macro, because on some systems
>  va_list variables cannot be passed by reference.
> ""

AFAIR, this was at least the case on systems that implemented va_list
with an array type.

> Can anyone please weigh in on whether or not these "some systems" have
> gotten their act together yet?  Is it still necessary to go out of our
> way like this in glib?

I think it's best to simply switch to C99 at *some* point (e.g. next year?
2009 - C99 will be ten years old by then). At that point we *know* we can rely
on features like va_list pointers. Before that, people are not forced to
upgrade compilers, so there'll always be an ancient setup/system that breaks
for new feature uses.

> Thanks in advance.
>
> Cheers

---
ciaoTJ