What is a header? - Page 4

Steven T. Hatton

If a header is not necessarily a source file, and the sequences delimited by
< and > in header names aren't necessarily valid source file names, what
exactly is a header?
--
p->m == (*p).m == p[0].m
http://www.kdevelop.org
http://www.suse.com
http://www.mozilla.org

Jul 22 '05

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Steven T. Hatton

E. Robert Tisdale wrote:

All "header" really means is that it is included
near the head of a source file or another header.
C doesn't support module interfaces explicitly
so headers were used to *improvise*
without ever acknowledging this deficiency in the language.

"I'd like to see Cpp abolished." - Bjarne Stroustrup

So why does it survive? My suspicion is that everybody thinks the other guy
knows how it's defined, and how it works. People think it's sacrosanct and
not subject to question or challenge. The ugly truth is, nobody knows how
it is defined other than 'poorly'.

--
STH
Hatton's Law: "There is only One inviolable Law"
KDevelop: http://www.kdevelop.org SuSE: http://www.suse.com
Mozilla: http://www.mozilla.org

Jul 22 '05 #31

Gary Labowitz

"Steven T. Hatton" <su******@setid ava.kushan.aa> wrote in message
news:a7******** ************@sp eakeasy.net...

E. Robert Tisdale wrote:
All "header" really means is that it is included
near the head of a source file or another header.
C doesn't support module interfaces explicitly
so headers were used to *improvise*
without ever acknowledging this deficiency in the language.

"I'd like to see Cpp abolished." - Bjarne Stroustrup

So why does it survive? My suspicion is that everybody thinks the

other guy knows how it's defined, and how it works. People think it's sacrosanct and not subject to question or challenge. The ugly truth is, nobody knows how it is defined other than 'poorly'.

Nonsense. Headers were used to simulate COBOL copybooks. Since
everyone knew how THEY worked (in 1964) it all made perfectly good
sense. With file type associations, I half-like cpp as an extention
that launches my preferred compiler. It would be nice to have cp1,
cp2, etc. for launching different compilers.
Hey! I can do that for myself! The trouble is it ain't portable and my
files may eventually get used by another programmer at work. The real
movement to guard against is people who suggest using the same file
type for generic identification (.src for all source, .doc for all
documents, .txt for all text, etc.).
--
Gary

Jul 22 '05 #32

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