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Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array

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"BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> writes:

> "Kaz Kylheku" <kaz@kylheku.com> wrote in message
> news:20120904143601.389@kylheku.com...
>> On 2012-09-04, BartC <bc@freeuk.com> wrote:
>>> "Kaz Kylheku" <kaz@kylheku.com> wrote in message
>>> news:20120904113418.486@kylheku.com...
>>>> On 2012-09-04, Francois Grieu <fgrieu@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Can I
>>>>> - use floating point at all ?
>>>>> - if yes: use sqrt, log, exp ?
>>>>
>>>> No. Constant expressions cannot contain funtion calls.
>>>
>>> Yet, an expression such as sqrt(9.0) seems to be reduced to 3.0 on
>>> the first
>>> two compilers I tried.
>>
>> That has no bearing on what is constitutes "constant expression".
>
> The sqrt() call is obviously being evaluated here as the well-known
> mathematical operation rather than an arbitrary C function. (Unless
> the compiler is clever enough to evaluate and reduce the C code inside
> an actual sqrt() function somewhere.)

A number of compilers are clever enough to do that, but not necessarily
on a lot of different functions.

> So the compiler could easily include mathematical functions amongst
> what are considered constant expressions. That it doesn't do so is
> presumably the standard saying it's not allowed (because it's not
> always practical to do). That's unfortunate, because it would be
> handy.

Preprocessor manipulations are a fairly rough tool for a number of other
reasons as well. Accordingly, I try to avoid doing anything overly
complicated with them. One alternative is to code the various values and
build a test program to check that they have the correct relationships;
this works more easily when the host platform is also the target
platform, but I've done it in embedded systems also. Another approach is
to generate the values as a separate step before compilation.

>>> It's not much of a stretch to allow that to be used as an array
>>> dimension,
>>> the main stumbling block being that 3.0 is not integral, while adding an
>>> (int) cast makes it look like a runtime expression.
>>
>> Why does a floating to integer conversion "look" runtime, but a square
>> root does not?
>
> From the error messages I got ('non-integer expression' with sqrt(),
> rather than 'dynamic expression' with (int)sqrt(), although I can't
> replicate those now..)

That may not be interesting; if several diagnostics apply, it won't
necessarily give you all of them. The specific messages can depend on
the parsing state at the time it notices an error. It's nice when a
compiler gives you all appropriate messages, but sometimes it's not
practical. 

-- 
Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer
	 http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/

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Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Francois Grieu <fgrieu@gmail.com> - 2012-09-04 19:14 +0200
  Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-09-04 14:08 -0400
    Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Francois Grieu <fgrieu@gmail.com> - 2012-09-05 09:56 +0200
      Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-09-05 07:33 -0400
        Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Francois Grieu <fgrieu@gmail.com> - 2012-09-05 23:39 +0200
          Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-09-05 18:11 -0400
    Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-09-05 07:17 -0400
  Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-09-04 19:18 +0100
  Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2012-09-04 18:41 +0000
    Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-09-04 20:22 +0100
      Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-09-04 17:07 -0400
        Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-09-04 17:25 -0400
          Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-09-04 18:24 -0400
            Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-09-04 17:29 -0700
        Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array army1987 <army1987@ask-for-it.invalid> - 2012-09-04 21:26 +0000
          Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array army1987 <army1987@ask-for-it.invalid> - 2012-09-04 21:31 +0000
            Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-09-04 17:41 -0400
              Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array army1987 <army1987@ask-for-it.invalid> - 2012-09-05 20:45 +0000
                Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-09-05 17:23 -0400
                Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array army1987 <army1987@ask-for-it.invalid> - 2012-09-05 21:30 +0000
                Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-09-05 23:04 +0100
                Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-09-05 18:17 -0400
                Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-09-05 18:29 -0400
            Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2012-09-04 21:44 +0000
      Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2012-09-04 21:39 +0000
        Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-09-04 22:58 +0100
          Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2012-09-04 22:12 +0000
          Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Lowell Gilbert <lgusenet@be-well.ilk.org> - 2012-09-04 18:55 -0400
      Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-09-04 16:51 -0700
        Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-09-04 20:58 -0400
          Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Francois Grieu <fgrieu@gmail.com> - 2012-09-05 10:04 +0200
          Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-09-07 04:47 -0700
            Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-09-07 14:04 -0700
              Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Casey Carter <casey_at_carter_dot_net@nospam.invalid> - 2012-09-07 16:40 -0500
              Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-09-07 19:54 -0700
                Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-09-08 14:15 -0700
                Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array lawrence.jones@siemens.com - 2012-09-17 12:09 -0400
        Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-09-07 04:53 -0700
          Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-09-07 13:07 +0100
            Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-09-07 14:08 -0700
            Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-09-07 19:41 -0700
  Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-09-04 20:26 +0100
  Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Barry Schwarz <schwarzb@dqel.com> - 2012-09-04 14:14 -0700
  Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array Tim Rentsch <txr@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2012-09-07 04:41 -0700
  Re: Limitations and workarounds to expressions defining size of an array army1987 <army1987@ask-for-it.invalid> - 2012-09-07 13:32 +0000

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