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From: Tim Rentsch
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Microsoft Will now support C11 and C17 standard!!!!!!!!!!
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2020 23:20:57 -0700
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Ben Bacarisse writes:
> Leo writes:
>
>> This is good news for those cross-compiling their software. Not sure
>> how hopeful I am though, does MSVC even support C99 properly now?
>
> That won't ever happen. C11 made VLAs optional and that cleared the way
> for MS to support later standards.
Do you know why Microsoft objected to VLAs? I've searched the
web a bit but wasn't able to find anything with any real
substance.
> It's a shame, because the baby of variably modified array types was
> thrown out with the VLA bath water. I don't think any of MS's
> objections apply to variably modified types in the absence of VLAs
I agree about variably modified types as contrasted with VLAs.
But I confess to being somewhat baffled by the reaction that VLAs
are a deal breaker. Implementing VLAs shouldn't be that hard, if
one is willing to accept a minimally usable implementation. So I
wonder what it was that Microsoft found so difficult to swallow.