Hacker News Reader

MSVC lacks some C99 features like variable length arrays and complex numbers. There's always a work around, but wouldn't want to use that compiler for C unless I had to.

Going for C89 for a truly portable project is probably fine.

View on HN

MSVC added that a few years ago. It took them a (very) long time, but it should now be fully C99-compliant, even C17 I think (either fully or mostly).

No. That syntax is not supported. Try a VLA and see how it goes. Then try a complex number or read the docs: "The compiler doesn't directly support a complex or _Complex keyword" - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/c-runtime-library/comp...

Supporting C11 and C17 by definition doesn't require supporting C99 features made optional in C11.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com