Understanding Use of gclient_t in Q2 Source Code

[Greenwood]

Hi,

I've been messing around with the source code for Quake 2, and I have a question about it, if anyone can help. In the file "p_client.c", inside the function "PutClientInServer", they declare a pointer like this: "gclient_t *client;".

So say I make another source code file, say "bot.c", and then include the same header files that "PutClientInServer" has. If I make a function in that, and try to declare a pointer in it like this: "gclient_t *client;", I get an error when I try to compile: "error C2275: 'gclient_t' : illegal use of this type as an expression".

Does anyone know why this happens? Ultimately, what I'm trying to do is figure out how to get a bot to have it's score displayed on the scoreboard. I'm messing around with the code to the Oakbot and the Famkebot from these sites:

http://www.quake2.com/dll/tutorials/bot/oak1.html
http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/old/tut.htm

Thanks guys.

[quadz]

So say I make another source code file, say "bot.c", and then include the same header files that "PutClientInServer" has. If I make a function in that, and try to declare a pointer in it like this: "gclient_t *client;", I get an error when I try to compile: "error C2275: 'gclient_t' : illegal use of this type as an expression".

Prior to C99, C only allowed variable declarations at the beginning of a block.

So you could say:

if (foo) {
  gclient_t *client;
  bar();
  baz();
}

but not:

if (foo) {
  bar();
  gclient_t *client;  // pre-C99 compilers won't allow this declaration following the above statement
  baz();
}


More info: http://www.informit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=cplusplus&seqNum=215


Hope this helps,

quadz

[Greenwood]

Yeah, that sorted it out. Thanks!