From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Oct 5 16:41:58 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id QAA16905 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 5 Oct 1997 16:41:58 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers) Received: from usr05.primenet.com (tlambert@usr05.primenet.com [206.165.6.205]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id QAA16896 for ; Sun, 5 Oct 1997 16:41:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert@usr05.primenet.com) Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr05.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id QAA24216; Sun, 5 Oct 1997 16:41:53 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199710052341.QAA24216@usr05.primenet.com> Subject: Re: Minor error (?) in regex.h To: brian@awfulhak.org (Brian Somers) Date: Sun, 5 Oct 1997 23:41:52 +0000 (GMT) Cc: Shimon@i-Connect.Net, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199710050916.KAA11200@awfulhak.demon.co.uk> from "Brian Somers" at Oct 5, 97 10:16:34 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > The stuff in /usr/include isn't meant to be standalone - it's a > hysterically religious thing. Having to do with relative compilation times based on how the C preprocessor works. The problem with making the cpp "know" the file to be included is already in scope is truly religious history: you can't be sure that some idiot trying to program C++ in C didn't define something, #include a file which ##'ed the something as a prefix/suffix, then redefined the thing, and included the same file again (think of "template classes for C" and you will get the -- nauseating -- picture). In addition, there are know dwiddley's (a dwiddley is someone who puts code in an include file). Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.