RFC: architecture define probably masks variable names in header files

[Christian Thalinger]

On Wed, 2008-01-16 at 23:04 +0100, Christian Thalinger wrote:
> Hi!
> 
> Today I noticed that it's not a good idea to use an architecture define
> as done in OpenJDK:
> 
> CPPFLAGS_COMMON = -D$(ARCH) -DARCH='"$(ARCH)"' -DLINUX $(VERSION_DEFINES) \
> 		  -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_REENTRANT
> 
> The -D$(ARCH) e.g. on an Alpha system makes big problems because a lot
> of variables are called "alpha" in GUI code.
> 
> I tried to patch the OpenJDK code in IcedTea but then I reached a point
> where it's not possible to fix the issue:
> 
> /usr/include/png.h:
> 
> typedef struct png_color_8_struct
> {
>    png_byte red;   /* for use in red green blue files */
>    png_byte green;
>    png_byte blue;
>    png_byte gray;  /* for use in grayscale files */
>    png_byte alpha; /* for alpha channel files */
> } png_color_8;
> 
> This won't work.
> 
> Normally build systems use architecture defines as __ALPHA__ or
> __alpha__ (these are also defined by the C compiler).
> 
> Any chance to get this thing changed/fixed upstream in the OpenJDK code?
> As I can't think of another solution of that problem...
> 
> Probably someone decides to name a function argument "sparc"
> someday... ;-)

So... noone cares?

- twisti