Is importC ready?

[Walter Bright]

On 11/11/2021 8:58 AM, bachmeier wrote:
> - The error messages tell you nothing. The only solution is to go through the 
> entire (large) preprocessed C file and identify every problem, with no help from 
> the compiler. The error message that caused me to file the bug was `illegal 
> combination of type specifiers`. After more than an hour of working on it, I had 
> finally commented out enough lines to make the error messages go away.

Was the file/line number given for the error incorrect?

I agree, though, that the error messages are inadequate. This first iteration of 
ImportC has a priority of getting correct code to compile correctly. Error 
messages are admittedly mostly placeholders. The important thing is the 
file/line being correct.

> - It's not obvious to someone lacking a strong understanding of C compilers how 
> to make the correct adjustments to the code. For instance, what am I supposed to 
> do with `_Float128` to get something that runs *and* is guaranteed to no change 
> the behavior of the code? I've never written a line of C code that used a 
> compiler extension in my life. It would require a major investment on my part.

I don't know what _Float128 is, either (though I can guess). So I turn to Google:

https://www.google.com/search?q=C+_Float128

And the first hit is:

https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Floating-Types.html

Most of the C headers are declarations. If you just comment out the offending 
declarations, the code will likely compile just fine, since you likely wouldn't 
be using _Float128 unless you knew what it was.