Re: [Mingw-users] [mingw - StupidTechiQuestions] RE: Welcome to MinGW's StupidTechiQuestions F

[Keith M. <kei...@to...>]

>> Read and respond to this message at: 
>> https://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=2947626
>> By: keithmarshall
>> 
>> No, you don't.  What you *do* need is a last line which correctly 
terminates
>> with a newline character -- it may, or may not, be blank.
>
> I just came accross this now as well. Seems that even g++ is complaining 

> about this. But I simply can't understand the reason of this 
> requirement. Does the compiler need this newline to desambiguate 
> something? Or is it just plain BS from the standard?

It is a requirement of the standard, which some compilers flaunt.

IMHO, it most certainly is *not* BS -- it is a completely worthwhile
sanity check.  If your last line *doesn't* end with a newline, can
you be certain that the file hasn't been corrupted, and that some
part of hasn't been chopped off the end?  Requiring that the last
line ends with a newline increases confidence in the integrity of
the file -- of course, it doesn't guarantee it, but the probability
of an arbitrarily truncated file actually ending with a newline is
fairly low.

Regards,
Keith.