Re: [Help-gsl] GSL and C99 standard

[Brian Gough <bjg@gnu.org>]

At Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:40:25 +0300,
Heikki Orsila wrote:
> Are there many users that can not support any C99 features?

One area I know of: it is a problem for embedded systems, when
compilers aren't updated by the manufacturer.  That's something I want
to support.

> I think the the relevant question is which C99 features, not the whole 
> feature set. For example, I would like to use named initializers for 
> structures as they make code more maintainable and easier to read:
> gcc has supported this feature for ages already..

For code internal to the library I think we would stick with C89
compatible syntax.  

It makes sense to use C99 functions internally where it's possible to
do that without breaking C89 compatibility, by providing portable
versions as a fallback.  We've done some of that with functions like
isfinite(), but there are other cases that could be changed.

It is mainly a question of how C99 could benefit users.  The main
areas would be

 - native complex numbers
 - restricted pointers for optimisation
 - new IEEE floating point functions/exception handling

-- 
Brian Gough