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From: David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Is it possible to generate a compile time error from an inline
 function?
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2024 22:50:38 +0200
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On 14/07/2024 21:14, Keith Thompson wrote:
> David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> writes:
>> On 13/07/2024 20:07, Richard Damon wrote:
> [...]
>>> The question being since most C compilers are also C++ compilers,
>>> they somethings accept this sort of C++ism as an extension.
>>
>> Actually, the vast majority of C compilers are /not/ also C++
>> compilers.   But the most popular C compilers, by a significant
>> margin, are C++ compilers.
> 
> I wouldn't quite put it that way.
> 
> gcc, clang, and Microsoft provide both C and C++ compilers, but they're
> separate applications, perhaps invoked from a common driver program.
> They typically share the same backend, but the frontends are separate.
> I wouldn't expect to see any code that parses "int class;" and decides
> whether it's a syntax error based on which language is being compiled.
> 
> The C and C++ frontends might share some code, but they're separate
> applications.
> 

That is a lot more accurate than the way I described it.

However, it is the case that the C compilers have historically picked up 
features from their sibling C++ compilers as extensions.  They don't get 
things that are directly counter to the way C works, and the good 
features have often made it into later C standards.

So yes, separate applications but with some code sharing is a better way 
to put it.