In C++, trigraphs are sequences of three characters that represent a single character. They were introduced to facilitate the input of certain characters on keyboards that lacked specific keys. However, they have been deemed redundant and error-prone, and their use is generally discouraged.
To eliminate trigraphs from your C++ code, you can use the appropriate compiler flag. For example, with the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), you can use the -Wtrigraphs
option to enable warnings about trigraphs and the -trigraphs
option to enable their actual processing during compilation. The -trigraphs
option can also be used to disable trigraph translation by specifying -trigraphs=no
or -trigraphs=off
.
By eliminating trigraphs from your code, you can avoid potential confusion and improve portability and maintainability.
For example, to compile a C++ program without trigraph translation using GCC, you can use the following command:
g++ -trigraphs=no -o output_file input_file.cpp
It is important to note that trigraphs have been removed from the latest C++ language standards, such as C++11 and later, so modern C++ codebases are less likely to encounter them.
By eliminating trigraphs from your code, you can improve its clarity and avoid potential issues related to trigraph interpretation in different environments.
References:
- C++ Standard - ISO/IEC 14882:2014
- GCC Compiler Options: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Option-Summary.html