Supported version of C

[programmingkidx]

I was wondering, should we adapt a rule where we limit the C language version that can be used in the library and compiler? Currently there are these C language versions: C89, C99, C11, C17, and C23. The lower the language version we stick with, the more operating systems can make use of V. My vote would be to limit C code to C11.

[JalonSolov]

V is C99 compliant, for the most part.

[programmingkidx]

If you mean V would compile with a compiler that only knows about C99, that unfortunately would not be the case. There is so many C11 keywords like _Thread_local, _Alignas, and a lot of C11 atomic functions in the source code.

I do like the idea of having portable features like atomic functions and threads working on multiple platforms, but it does also mean the older platforms will require more work to make V work on.

[JalonSolov]

That's why I said "for the most part". :-)

Support for atomic functions is relatively "new" to V, and people weren't as careful vetting against C99... especially since most compilers support well beyond that by now.

I agree that effort would have to be made to support older platforms, but I am personally against that - why bother supporting a system that old? Those systems already have well-documented support systems in place, with build tools, etc.

Yes, it might be nice to have something more modern like V available there, but - honestly, I don't believe there enough of those older systems in use to make it worthwhile investing the time to support them.

It would actually make more sense to make a more modern C compiler work on those system, then V would "just work" as it is now.