Directives in comments

[P E Smee]

In article <25234 at cup.portal.com> compata at cup.portal.com (David H Close) writes:

>The following program fragment appears to conform to the rules stated.
>
>	/*
>	 *            Program heading
>	 #define hdr "Program name"
>	 *            end of heading
>	 */
>	main () { printf(hdr); }
>
>However, the SCO compiler produces the following error message.
>
>	t.c(6) : error 65: 'hdr' : undefined

Common folklore has it that comments are stripped out (and always have
been) BEFORE the preprocessor sets to work, so that your #define
disappears before the preprocessor sees it.  However, I can't find
anything in either K&R-1 or K&R-2 which specifically SAYS that.  The
behaviour you mention certainly doesn't surprise me, though.

-- 
Paul Smee, Univ of Bristol Comp Centre, Bristol BS8 1TW, Tel +44 272 303132
 Smee at bristol.ac.uk  :-)  (..!uunet!ukc!gdr.bath.ac.uk!exspes if you MUST)