🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <CK3MrI.LH4@deshaw.com>,
Christos Zoulas <christos@deshaw.com> wrote:
...
>>In article <2gs6qk$nan@news.parc.xerox.com>,
>>Marty Leisner 25733 <leisner@sdsp.mc.xerox.com> wrote:
...
>>>define ID_STRING(x)            static char rcsid[] = x; USE_VAR(rcsid);
...
>What is the problem with:
>
>#define USE_VAR(var) (void) var
>
>christos

static char rcsid[] = "<id string>"; (void) rcsid;

is not legal C, and misses the point of the exercise.  In order to avoid a
warning from the compiler, var must be referred to; the only way to do that
in the context Marty is using is to make it part of an initializer for some
variable, and the problem with that is that the new variable is also subject
to a warning unless likewise used in an initializer.  The solutions proposed
make both var and the new variable use##var part of the initializer of
use##var.  Before asking "Why not just do it this way?", it's worth trying
to understand what problem the proposed solutions seem to be trying to solve.
-- 
<J Q B>