dollar sign in macros

**matevzb** · Dec 4 '06, 09:55 PM

Re: dollar sign in macros

Digital Puer wrote:

I've inherited some code where the coder placed dollar signs in
his preprocessor macros. What is the significance of the
dollar signs ($) ?

I'm not a Standard expert, but I think $ is disallowed in an
identifier:
---
3.1.2 Identifiers
<snip>
An identifier is a sequence of nondigit characters (including the
underscore _ and the lower-case and upper-case letters) and digits. The
first character shall be a nondigit character.
<snip>
---

<OT>
That said, $ does have a special treatment on OpenVMS and maybe other
VAXen systems. I'm not sure what it does however...
</OT>

--
WYCIWYG - what you C is what you get

**loic-dev@gmx.net** · Dec 4 '06, 09:55 PM

Re: dollar sign in macros

Hello,

I've inherited some code where the coder placed dollar signs in
his preprocessor macros. What is the significance of the
dollar signs ($) ?
>
Example:
#define ALLOCATE(task,p ointer) \
{ \
long task$; \
if (task == FOO) { \
task$ = ZERO); \
} else task$ = task; \
switch (task$) {
>
etc.

in your above example, the '$' sign has no special meaning. It's just
used as another character for the variable name, which is called here
"task$". This may be a strange name, but unless I am mistaken, this is
a perfectly valid name.

The coder may have use the "$" sign to define a convention of its own.
Unless you have some documentation (code design, comments in the code
etc.) about this convention, you have to induce it (if one is defined)
from the source you received. Or just you take that "$"-name as it is.

HTH,
Loic.

**Mark McIntyre** · Dec 4 '06, 10:05 PM

Re: dollar sign in macros

On 4 Dec 2006 14:03:55 -0800, in comp.lang.c , "Digital Puer"
<digital_puer@h otmail.comwrote :

>I've inherited some code where the coder placed dollar signs in
>his preprocessor macros. What is the significance of the
>dollar signs ($) ?

reminds me of the old VAX/VMS system routines/variables.
--
Mark McIntyre

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan

**Ben Pfaff** · Dec 4 '06, 10:05 PM

Re: dollar sign in macros

loic-dev@gmx.net writes:

in your above example, the '$' sign has no special meaning. It's just
used as another character for the variable name, which is called here
"task$". This may be a strange name, but unless I am mistaken, this is
a perfectly valid name.

Not in ISO C, either C89 or C99. In C99, you can specify a
dollar sign using a universal character name, but it doesn't
*look* like a dollar sign then.
--
"I ran it on my DeathStation 9000 and demons flew out of my nose." --Kaz

**loic-dev@gmx.net** · Dec 4 '06, 10:15 PM

Re: dollar sign in macros

Hi Ben,

in your above example, the '$' sign has no special meaning. It's just
used as another character for the variable name, which is called here
"task$". This may be a strange name, but unless I am mistaken, this is
a perfectly valid name.

>
Not in ISO C, either C89 or C99. In C99, you can specify a
dollar sign using a universal character name, but it doesn't
*look* like a dollar sign then.

Yeah thanks. I had a doubt about this, I just checked out the
standard... I should have used the '-pedantic' flag, when I checked
with my compiler ;-) Which is by no means a proof, BTW... Next time, I
look the standard first, then I post :-D

Cheers,
Loic.

**Spiros Bousbouras** · Dec 4 '06, 10:45 PM

Re: dollar sign in macros

Digital Puer wrote:

I've inherited some code where the coder placed dollar signs in
his preprocessor macros. What is the significance of the
dollar signs ($) ?
>
Example:
#define ALLOCATE(task,p ointer) \
{ \
long task$; \
if (task == FOO) { \
task$ = ZERO); \
} else task$ = task; \
switch (task$) {
>
etc.

As others have said $ is probably part of the name of
the variable and not allowed in standard C. Some compilers
allow as an extension $ to be part of an identifier name ;
for example gcc.

**santosh** · Dec 5 '06, 02:15 AM

Re: dollar sign in macros

Digital Puer wrote:

I've inherited some code where the coder placed dollar signs in
his preprocessor macros. What is the significance of the
dollar signs ($) ?
>
Example:
#define ALLOCATE(task,p ointer) \
{ \
long task$; \
if (task == FOO) { \
task$ = ZERO); \
} else task$ = task; \
switch (task$) {
>
etc.

This is a gcc extension. Other compilers may also have this feature.

**Christopher Benson-Manica** · Dec 5 '06, 02:55 AM

Re: dollar sign in macros

Digital Puer <digital_puer@h otmail.comwrote :

I've inherited some code where the coder placed dollar signs in
his preprocessor macros. What is the significance of the
dollar signs ($) ?

That someone is using a C implementation to preprocess Perl source?
As others have noted the $ is not a valid identifier character. It
should be possible to run this code through the preprocessor with your
implementation and see what it looks like; that may give you a clue as
to what is going on. How that might be accomplished is a question for
a different newsgroup.

--
C. Benson Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
cbmanica(at)gma il.com | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

**Digital Puer** · Dec 5 '06, 03:55 AM

Re: dollar sign in macros

santosh wrote:

Digital Puer wrote:

I've inherited some code where the coder placed dollar signs in
his preprocessor macros. What is the significance of the
dollar signs ($) ?

Example:
#define ALLOCATE(task,p ointer) \
{ \
long task$; \
if (task == FOO) { \
task$ = ZERO); \
} else task$ = task; \
switch (task$) {

etc.

>
This is a gcc extension. Other compilers may also have this feature.

The original programmer used Microsoft VC++ to write his C code.
He is a chemist by training, and he is kind of an old guy (about 60).

Another poster said that the code reminded him of VMS code,
so I wonder if the original programmer was doing something
along those lines.

**Keith Thompson** · Dec 5 '06, 05:35 AM

Re: dollar sign in macros

Christopher Benson-Manica <ataru@ukato.fr eeshell.orgwrit es:

Digital Puer <digital_puer@h otmail.comwrote :

>I've inherited some code where the coder placed dollar signs in
>his preprocessor macros. What is the significance of the
>dollar signs ($) ?

>
That someone is using a C implementation to preprocess Perl source?

[...]

Not likely. The "identifier " in question was "task$"; Perl would use
"$task".

--
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keit h) kst-u@mib.org <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
San Diego Supercomputer Center <* <http://users.sdsc.edu/~kst>
We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.

**Joseph Huber** · Dec 5 '06, 07:45 AM

Re: dollar sign in macros

In article <1165291965.250 100.62140@73g20 00cwn.googlegro ups.com>, "Digital Puer" <digital_puer@h otmail.comwrite s:

>
Another poster said that the code reminded him of VMS code,
so I wonder if the original programmer was doing something
along those lines.

I think it's just the programmers habit to use $ in identifiers.
True, VMS C compilers allow $ (and gcc probably to cover programs
written for VMS), but names containing $ in VMS are reserved to the system
vendor (and registered third party software), to make them unique.

So $s in user programs violate both, C and VMS standards.

--
Joseph Huber , Muenchen,German y: http://www.huber-joseph.de/

**pete** · Dec 5 '06, 11:45 AM

Re: dollar sign in macros

Joseph Huber wrote:

>
In article <1165291965.250 100.62140@73g20 00cwn.googlegro ups.com>, "Digital Puer" <digital_puer@h otmail.comwrite s:

Another poster said that the code reminded him of VMS code,
so I wonder if the original programmer was doing something
along those lines.

>
I think it's just the programmers habit to use $ in identifiers.
True, VMS C compilers allow $ (and gcc probably to cover programs
written for VMS), but names containing $ in VMS are reserved to the system
vendor (and registered third party software), to make them unique.
>
So $s in user programs violate both, C and VMS standards.

Whenever I see posted C programs that use reserved identifiers,
it reminds me of a time when I read system header files
to see what proffessional code looked like,
so that I could imitate the style (a misconception on my part).

--
pete

**Christopher Benson-Manica** · Dec 5 '06, 05:55 PM

Re: dollar sign in macros

pete <pfiland@mindsp ring.comwrote:

Whenever I see posted C programs that use reserved identifiers,
it reminds me of a time when I read system header files
to see what proffessional code looked like,
so that I could imitate the style (a misconception on my part).

A misconception in more ways than one, given what some of that
"profession al" code looks like :-)

--
C. Benson Manica | I *should* know what I'm talking about - if I
cbmanica(at)gma il.com | don't, I need to know. Flames welcome.

**Random832** · Dec 5 '06, 06:15 PM

Re: dollar sign in macros

2006-12-05 <wZrLMQvhIVAk@v ms.mppmu.mpg.de >,
Joseph Huber wrote:

In article <1165291965.250 100.62140@73g20 00cwn.googlegro ups.com>, "Digital Puer" <digital_puer@h otmail.comwrite s:

>>
>Another poster said that the code reminded him of VMS code,
>so I wonder if the original programmer was doing something
>along those lines.

>
I think it's just the programmers habit to use $ in identifiers.
True, VMS C compilers allow $ (and gcc probably to cover programs
written for VMS), but names containing $ in VMS are reserved to the system
vendor (and registered third party software), to make them unique.
>
So $s in user programs violate both, C and VMS standards.

Is \u0024 allowed in identifiers?

Is there a list of what UCNs are and are not allowed in identifiers?

dollar sign in macros

dollar sign in macros

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