In trying to build the Perl Curses module (Curses-1.12)
under Perl 5.8 on a new AIX box I came up against the
limits of my C as well as my Unix knowledge. The thing
had built okay under Perl 5.6 on the old AIX system.
The only co-worker within reach who seems to know more
C than I do had no clue either.

I have put the error messages and excerpt from the
source file in question at
http://cpacker.org/aa.txt

The only thing that looks odd to me in perlio.h on the
error lines is "pTHX_" -- which isn't followed by a comma.
Looking around for what it might be, I see there are these
lines in perl.h in the same directory:

# define pTHX_ pTHX,
which is preceded a few lines back by

# define pTHX register PerlInterpreter *my_perl PERL_UNUSED_DECL
which is REALLY out of my league...

Interpretation welcomed.

--
mailbox@cpacker.org (Charles Packer)
ungoogled: mailboxATSIGNcpacker.org

Mac wrote:
> > The only thing that looks odd to me in perlio.h on the
> > error lines is "pTHX_" -- which isn't followed by a comma.
> > Looking around for what it might be, I see there are these
> > lines in perl.h in the same directory:
> >
> > # define pTHX_ pTHX,
> > which is preceded a few lines back by
> >
> > # define pTHX register PerlInterpreter *my_perl PERL_UNUSED_DECL
> > which is REALLY out of my league...
> >
> > Interpretation welcomed.
>
> This is totally off-topic in comp.lang.c. I don't know about the other


Oh yeah? Please explain.

--
mailbox@cpacker.org (Charles Packer)
ungoogled: mailboxATSIGNcpacker.org

mailbox@cpacker.org wrote:
> Mac wrote:
>
> > > The only thing that looks odd to me in perlio.h on the
> > > error lines is "pTHX_" -- which isn't followed by a comma.
> > > Looking around for what it might be, I see there are these
> > > lines in perl.h in the same directory:
> > >
> > > # define pTHX_ pTHX,
> > > which is preceded a few lines back by
> > >
> > > # define pTHX register PerlInterpreter *my_perl PERL_UNUSED_DECL
> > > which is REALLY out of my league...
> > >
> > > Interpretation welcomed.
> >
> > This is totally off-topic in comp.lang.c. I don't know about the other
>
> Oh yeah? Please explain.

It shouldn't be here.

--
"If you want to post a followup via groups.google.com, don't use
the broken "Reply" link at the bottom of the article. Click on
"show options" at the top of the article, then click on the
"Reply" at the bottom of the article headers." - Keith Thompson

Michael Wojcik wrote:
> In article <pan.2005.08.19.23.19.34.211310@bar.net>, Mac <foo@bar.net> writes:
> > This is totally off-topic in comp.lang.c. I don't know about the other
> > groups because I don't read them.
>
> I disagree. It's a question about the meaning of certain lines of C
> code which do not appear to involve any nonstandard keywords or other
> language "extensions", and about the probable meaning of diagnostics
> issued by one implementation when compiling that code. The former
> seems entirely topical for c.l.c to me, and the latter at least
> arguably topical; even if it is implementation-dependant, we do treat
> some questions of "typical implementations" here as topical.
>
> > I am setting followups to c.l.p.m and c.u.a.
>
> On the other hand, it seems to me completely OT for c.l.p.m, since
> it's a question about, at best, part of a specific Perl implementa-
> tion, and not the Perl language or programs written in it. Indeed,
> it's just the sort of question we regularly boot out of c.l.c for
> just that reason.
>
> Nor is it topical for c.u.a, as its only connection to AIX is that
> happens to be the platform hosting the C implementation being used.


Thanks for the analysis of the material I supplied. But why should I
have problems anyway? The Curses package is from CPAN and built okay
under Perl 5.6. There's nothing at the CPAN Web site that suggests that
Curses will not build under Perl 5.8. And from what I know so far,
there should be no reason to question why the Makefile on the new AIX
system shows the default C compiler as cc_r, whereas on our old AIX
system it was cc.

In other words, the problem didn't begin with doubtful C code that I
wrote. The C code was from an established vendor and built and executed
successfully in one environment but wouldn't even build in another. For
me to know in advance what single newsgroup to post in under these
circumstances would have been to know what variables were being
confounded when our sysadmin upgraded to new hardware and
software...and therefore to know the solution to the problem...and not
need to post at all...

--
mailbox@cpacker.org (Charles Packer)
ungoogled: mailboxATSIGNcpacker.org

On Sat, 20 Aug 2005 03:31:16 -0700, mailbox wrote:

>
> Mac wrote:
>> > The only thing that looks odd to me in perlio.h on the
>> > error lines is "pTHX_" -- which isn't followed by a comma.
>> > Looking around for what it might be, I see there are these
>> > lines in perl.h in the same directory:
>> >
>> > # define pTHX_ pTHX,
>> > which is preceded a few lines back by
>> >
>> > # define pTHX register PerlInterpreter *my_perl PERL_UNUSED_DECL
>> > which is REALLY out of my league...
>> >
>> > Interpretation welcomed.
>>
>> This is totally off-topic in comp.lang.c. I don't know about the other
>
>
> Oh yeah? Please explain.

I'm sorry, I was rather terse. Read the clc FAQ, or "welcome to CLC" or
something like that. You'll get the picture. Here are URL's:

http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...ebc1119?hl=en&

This newsgroup is for discussion of the C language as defined by the
relevant ANSI or ISO standards. Your question deals with a build problem
for a well known package.

My guess is that you will get much better expert help from people who use
your platform, people who deal with curses, or people who deal with Perl.
There is some possibility that you could find help at
comp.unix.programmer, but check first before posting.

Anyway, good luck with your problem. Build problems can be very
frustrating!

I'm posting to all three groups without setting followups this time since
it now appears likely that the question is not entirely topical in any of
the groups.

--Mac