[Python-Dev] Baffled by PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords modification (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Sat Feb 11 09:30:52 CET 2006

Greg Ewing wrote:

FWIW, Annex D also defines these features as deprecated: - the use of "static" for objects in namespace scope (AFAICT including C file-level static variables and functions) - C library headers (i.e. <stdio.h>)

Things like this are really starting to get on my groat. It used to be that C++ was very nearly a superset of C, so it was easy to write code that would compile as either. But C++ seems to be evolving into a different language altogether.

Not at all. People appear to completely fail to grasp the notion of "deprecated" in this context. It just means "it may go away in a future version", implying that the rest of it may not go away in a future version.

That future version might get published in 2270, when everybody has switched to C++, and compatibility with C is no longer required.

So the compiler is wrong for warning about it (or the user is wrong for asking to get warned), and you are wrong for getting upset about this.

(And an obnoxiously authoritarian one at that. If I want to write some C++ code that uses stdio because I happen to like it better, why the heck shouldn't I be allowed to? It's MY program, not the C++ standards board's!)

Again, you are misunderstanding what precisely is deprecated. Sure you can still use stdio, and it is never going away (it isn't deprecated). However, you have to spell the header as

#include

and then refer to the functions as std::printf, std::stderr, etc.

What is really being deprecated here is the global namespace. That's also the reason to deprecate file-level static: you should use anonymous namespaces instead.

(Also, just in case this is misunderstood again: it is not that programs cannot put stuff in the global namespace anymore. It's just that the standard library should not put stuff in the global namespace).

Regards, Martin

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