functions with preceeding underscores

[codec]

Hi,

I've got a quick question. I was looking at the vsnprintf function, which on UNIX OSs is simply vsnprintf where-as on Windows it is defined as _vsnprintf. Why is it that this function, and some others have a preceeding underscore in Windows?

Thanks,

Daniel

[nonpuz]

only reason i could think of is to have less chance of conflicting with a user function

[quzah]

Though I can't find the immediate reference, names beginning with an underscore and a capital letter, or two underscores, are reserved. A quick few hits give you topics on name space pollution (link), and a few (link) hits (link) on general naming schemes.

I'm sure someone'll be along shortly to quote the standard. But since I don't have it around, I'll leave that to them.

Quzah.

[codec]

thanks quzah.

Does this mean that in my code I'm safe to do the following?

#ifdef _WIN32
#define vsnprintf _vsnprintf
#endif

and then just use vsnprintf in all my code, whether it be Windows or *nix?

Daniel

[chrismiceli]

yeah, as long as vsnprintf is not defined already.