[Python-Dev] #ifdef __cplusplus? (original) (raw)

M.-A. Lemburg mal at egenix.com
Fri Jan 2 16:43:57 CET 2009

On 2009-01-02 00:54, Nick Coghlan wrote:

Ulrich Eckhardt wrote:

Hi!

There are lots of files that are framed with an extern "C" stanza when compiled under C++. Now, I appreciate that header files are made suitable for use with C++ with that, but WTF are those doing in .c files??? I believe it is to allow building the Python source as an embedded part of an external application that is built with a C++ compiler,

That's the reason, yes.

Mixing .c and .cpp files in a compiler call will not always cause an implicit extern "C" to be used for the .c files. This causes problems for cases where you rely on the naming of the exported functions, e.g. for the module init function. C++ mangles all exported symbols. extern "C" disables this.

AFAIR, early versions of MS VC++ used to compile everything as C++ file, regardless of the extension.

even when that compiler isn't clever enough to realise that the 'extern "C"' should be implied by the '.c' file extension.

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