#define VERSION 1.0.0 - too many decimal points

[Lost User]

Vaclav_Sal wrote:

Apparently #define VERSION   does not simply replace the VERSION with literal 1.0.0 but the 1.0.0 is analyzed by GCC compiler.

When you use that statement the value after the word VERSION has two decimal points so it is not a valid token, and the compiler rejects it. A #define statement must contain valid C/C++ code, so the value after the identifier must be a valid literal or expression which resolves to a valid literal; see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/teas0593.aspx[^].

[PIEBALDconsult]

Please read the response.

[PIEBALDconsult]

My test (above) with Borland's compiler had no trouble -- provided I stringized the value. But there are better ways to skin that cat.

[Vaclav_]

Thanks for the link Richard. Here is the reason why it had too many decimal points "The token-string argument consists of a series of tokens, such as keywords, constants, or complete statements." It passes if the token string is just 1.0, but obviously it has to be correctly formatted for printf to display right.

[PIEBALDconsult]

Stefan_Lang wrote:

#define symbols ... pollute the entire global namespace

Ummm... what? They are gone as soon as the preprocessor completes.

[CPallini]

That's just rude.

THESE PEOPLE REALLY BOTHER ME!! How can they know what you should do without knowing what you want done?!?! -- C++ FQA Lite

[CPallini]

That's true, of course. Still you may have a clash with a global symbol.

THESE PEOPLE REALLY BOTHER ME!! How can they know what you should do without knowing what you want done?!?! -- C++ FQA Lite

[PIEBALDconsult]

That's OK, it'll just rock the casbah. :jig:

[CPallini]

:thumbsup:

THESE PEOPLE REALLY BOTHER ME!! How can they know what you should do without knowing what you want done?!?! -- C++ FQA Lite

[Albert Holguin]

I thought that was a pretty good response... :thumbsup:

[Lost User]

Same with Microsoft C++, as you would expect.

[Stefan_Lang]

It once took me more than a day to resolve an issue that manifested as some inexplicable and incomprehensible error message somewhere in the depths of the MS-provided STL implementation. In the end it turned out that the #defined symbols min and max from the windows header files managed to wreak so much havoc in the implementation files of std::valarray, that the error messages not only were totally unrecognizable but also pointed to an entirely different point in the code! That's what I mean by cluttering the global namespace: just about anywhere in your code, any macro from a totally unrelated part, has the potential to totally destroy your code to the point where you neither recognize the location nor cause of the problem! Fixing such an issue in a codebase of 3 million lines of code is not fun at all!

GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)

[PIEBALDconsult]

And VAX/DEC/HP C of course.