is _X_INLINE still needed

[Alan Coopersmith]

On 1/31/24 11:01, Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult wrote:
> Hello folks,
> 
> 
> I wonder whether the _X_INLINE still needed (inside X server codebase).
> 
> It's coming from <X11/funcproto.h> from xproto (>=7.0.9) and seems to
> tbe just workaround for old compilers that didn't understand the inline
> keyword yet. (personally, don't actually recall having one that didn't,
> must be decades ago :p)
> 
> Does the xserver still need to support such compilers that don't know
> the inline keyword yet ?

In public headers, I'd say it's still needed, as we've always supported
compiling applications against our libraries in strict C89 mode (i.e.
-std=c89, not gnu89 or similar modes that allow extensions), and it's
easier to leave it in those headers than to announce we're dropping that
support.  (At least for existing headers, it's probably not necessary in
new headers, but we don't create those very often these days.)

In the Xserver code base itself, where it's not exposed to other software,
I think it's fine to just use a bare "inline", as we already use & require
other C99 features in that code base.

(Currently the only compiler checks in Xfuncproto.h are for gcc with
  extensions, or for version 5.5 or later of the Sun cc compiler, which
  was released as part of Sun Studio 8 in 2003 - and all prior versions
  of that compiler have been unsupported by its vendor since 2010.)

-- 
         -Alan Coopersmith-                 alan.coopersmith at oracle.com
          Oracle Solaris Engineering - https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris