[Python-Dev] staticforward

[Jeremy Hylton]

>>>>> "MAL" == mal  <M.-A.> writes:

  MAL> What are you after here ? Remove the configure.in test as well
  MAL> ?
  >>
  >> It is already gone. And earlier in this thread, we established
  >> that it did you no good, right?

  MAL> No and I think I was clear about the fact that I don't want
  MAL> this to be removed.

It's clear you don't want it to be removed, but not entirely clear
why.  We've got a whole alpha and beta cycle to see if anyone finds an
actual compiler problem with the Python core.  During that time, you
can see if the problem occurs for the header file you mentioned.  (The
one where you use it for an array even though you could rearrange the
code to eliminate it.)

  >> You only care about compilers that choke on static array decls
  >> with later initialization, and the test doesn't catch that.

  MAL> The test tries to catch a general problem in some compilers:

No one has produced any evidence that there are still compilers that
have this problem.

  MAL> that static forward declarations cause compile time
  MAL> errors. However, it only tests this for structs, not arrays and
  MAL> functions.  So not all problems related to static forward
  MAL> declarations are catched. That's why I had to add support for
  MAL> this to the header file I'm using.

The Python core has no need for tests on arrays or functions.
(Indeed, staticforward was not intended for function prototypes.)  

Jeremy