Re: Lua evolution and C99

[Rob Kendrick <rjek@...>]

On Fri, Aug 05, 2011 at 10:09:36AM +0200, steve donovan wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Lorenzo Donati
> <lorenzodonatibz@interfree.it> wrote:
> > I was wondering whether "porting" Lua to C99, i.e. using C99 features to
> > enhance it, would allow some real advantages over C90.
> 
> One big issue is that Microsoft is not interested in C99, preferring
> to concentrate on the new C++ standard.
> 
> Otherwise, I can't offhand think of what real advantages one gains.
> There are syntactical conveniences, and 'inline' being a keyword means
> less reliance on macros.

Off the top of my head before I've had a second cup of tea:

1) Finer-grained control of automatic variable declaration makes code
tidier and can result in faster, tighter code should the compiler be
bothered,

2) 'restrict' keyword can make significant performance improvements by
expressing to the compiler information about pointer aliasing, reducing
redundant data loads,

3) hex float support, allowing easily portable code for reading and
writing floating point values between systems with different
representations.

B.