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Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 15:50:49 +0200 (CEST)
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From: Oliver Fromme <olli@lurza.secnetix.de>
To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG, will.rutherdale@utoronto.ca
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Cc: 
Subject: Re: Why??  (prog question)
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(Note:  Redirected to -chat.)

William Gordon Rutherdale wrote:
 > There is a very logical reason in C for wanting to put the opening brace 
 > of an 'if' statement on a separate line:  preprocessor statements.

The preprocessor is one of the biggest mistakes in the design
of the C language.  This is one of the reasons why.  :-)

 > int foo( int x )
 > {
 > #ifdef SCENARIO_A
 >     if ( x<3 ) {
 > #else
 >     if ( x<2 ) {
 > #endif
 >         // . . .
 >     }
 >     // . . .
 > }

Personally I think that code intermixed with #ifdef stuff
looks butt ugly and is difficult to read, no matter where
you put the braces.

I would rather try to refactor the code, so the #if stuff
is separate and doesn't rupture the function content, like
this:

#ifdef SCENARIO_A
#   define FOO_CONDITION (x < 3)
#else
#   define FOO_CONDITION (x < 2)
#endif

int foo( int x )
{
    if (FOO_CONDITION) {
        // . . .
    }
    // . . .
}

Problem solved, and the whole thing is much more readable.

Best regards
   Oliver

-- 
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M.
Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606,  Geschäftsfuehrung:
secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht Mün-
chen, HRB 125758,  Geschäftsführer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart

FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr:  http://www.secnetix.de/bsd

"C is quirky, flawed, and an enormous success."
        -- Dennis M. Ritchie.