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1.4 Compatibility with previous versions

Newer versions have usually numerous bug fixes compared with the previous version. But we also sometimes introduce some incompatibilities with older versions. Not just for the fun of it, but to make the compiler more stable, efficient and ANSI compliant (see section 8.2 for ANSI-Compliance).

- short is now equivalent to int (16 bits), it used to be equivalent to char (8 bits) which is not ANSI compliant. To maintain compatibility, old programs may be compiled using the --short-is-8bits commandline option (see lyx:-short-is-8bits).
- the default directory for gcc-builds where include, library and documentation files are stored is now in /usr/local/share.
- char type parameters to vararg functions are casted to int unless explicitly casted and --std-c89 and --std-c99 command line option are not defined , e.g.:
  `char a=3;`
  `printf ("%d %c\n", a, (char)a);`
  will push a as an int and as a char resp if --std-c89 and --std-c99 command line options are not defined,
  will push a as two ints if --std-c89 or --std-c99 command line option is defined.
- option --regextend has been removed.
- option --noregparms has been removed.
- option --stack-after-data has been removed.
- bit and sbit types now consistently behave like the C99 _Bool type with respect to type conversion. The most common incompatibility resulting from this change is related to bit toggling idioms, e.g.:
  `bit b;`
  `b = ~b; /* equivalent to b=1 instead of toggling b */`
  `b = !b; /* toggles b */`
  In previous versions, both forms would have toggled the bit.
- in older versions, the preprocessor was always called with --std-c99 regardless of the --std-xxx setting. This is no longer true, and can cause compilation failures on code built with --std-c89 but using c99 preprocessor features, such as one-line (//) comments
- in versions older then 2.8.4 the pic16 *printf() and printf_tiny() library functions supported undocumented and not standard compliant 'b' binary format specifier ("%b", "%hb" and "%lb"). The 'b' specifier is now disabled by default. It can be enabled by defining BINARY_SPECIFIER macro in files device/lib/pic16/libc/stdio/vfprintf.c and device/lib/pic16/libc/stdio/printf_tiny.c and recompiling the library.
- in versions older then 2.8.5 the unnamed bitfield structure members participated in initialization, which is not conforming with ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard (see section Section 6.7.8 Initialization, clause 9)
  Old behavior, before version 2.8.5:
  `struct {`
  `int a : 2;`
  `char : 2;`
  `int b : 2;`
  `} s = {1, 2, 3};`
  `/* s.a = 1, s.b = 3 */`
  New behavior:
  `struct {`
  `int a : 2;`
  `char : 2;`
  `int b : 2;`
  `} s = {1, 2};`
  `/* s.a = 1, s.b = 2 */`

Next: 1.5 System Requirements Up: 1. Introduction Previous: 1.3 Typographic conventions Contents Index