Re: [avr-gcc-list] generic queue library for AVR GCC?

[rusty+avr-gcc-list]

   Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 10:30:24 -0700
   From: "E. Weddington" <address@hidden>
   To: David Brown <address@hidden>
   Subject: Re: [avr-gcc-list] generic queue library for AVR GCC?
   Cc: avr-gcc-list <address@hidden>

   David Brown wrote:

   >Personally, I'd like to see the addition of a "critical" function
   >attribute, like in mspgcc.  It is clearly readable, avoids any
   >requirements for extra local variables, generates optimal code,
   >and generates any required "goto out" automatically.  You can use
   >it on inlined functions to avoid function call overheads if you
   >want.
   >  
   >
   I think that's a *great* idea!

Wouldn't that require a change to the syntax of the c language?  Not
that it's a bad idea but just don't expect to see it soon unless
someone else has already proposed it to whatever committee oversees
the language.

As an aside, Java has a construct that would help here; you can put a
"try" around code that might fail and have a "finally" block that
always gets executed:

        try {
            begin_critical();
            if (something_fails())
                return;
            more_code();
        }
        finally {
            end_critical();
        }

So even though there's a "return" in the try block, the "finally"
block will still get executed before the "return".

(I've been a c programmer for years and have just recently dipped my
toes in the Java waters.  Java does have some nice ideas.)