Weird problem with C compiler under SCO - I can't believe it!

[Mark J. DeFilippis]

I was starting to port source for a version 7 Unix pascal compiler to
SCO XENIX 2.3.1 when I ran into a real weird problem.  Isolating the line
which was the source of the error I found the following:

The following short section of code does not compile using SCO XENIX 2.3.1
and the 2.2.1 Development system, and I can't figure out why.

1 main()
2 {
3 	char *cdecl;
4 }

Compiled with simple:
	cc testfile.c
Yields the errors:
             error(3) : error 59 : syntax error : ';'
             ***error code 1            

If you change the name 'cdecl' to anything else, it compiles fine.
(ccdecl, cdecll, work fine, so the only thing I can think of is some
type of a conflict.  But a conflict with what???  Their are no macros,
no external functions, no libraries, and the error it reports is a _syntax_
error of all things, not a linkage error.

Problems like this we don't need!  Who thinks of changing variable names?
I mean, when you hit the point in your debugging that you are trying
to change the name of a variable as a hack, (Like the name should really
make a difference), it's a pretty desperate situation.  This Unix
wizard thought he had seen it all... :-)

Can someone out there working with SCO xenix, and running a different release
try this little test program and let me know via email what the results are.
I also have an unconfirmed report that it bombs under the new SCO UNIX
release also.

Any constructive comments?  Has this been seen before?

-- 
Adelphi University, Garden City, NY 11530                   (516) 663-1170
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
                                 markd at adelphi.UUCP  or  mark at promark.UUCP
                      UUCP:      ...philabs!sbcs!bnlux0!adelphi!markd