[krylon]

I find parens around a return value/expression slightly annoying, but not annoying enough to have a debate over it. It doesn't make the code harder to read, IMHO.

Whitespace between a function name and the arguments is significant, however, because with a function-like macro, there must be no whitespace between the name and the opening parenthesis. I've seen the following code in production code, for example:

  #include <stdlib.h>
  #define free(x) free(x), x = NULL

  free(ptr1); // Macro
  free (ptr2); // Call free(3) directly

(Whether or not such a macro is good idea is a different question entirely, the point is that you can prevent such macro-expansion by using whitespace. Aesthetically, I find it very disturbing, though.)

[rwallace]

You do need to omit whitespace between the name and the opening parenthesis when defining a functionlike macro, but it doesn't matter when you're calling it.

[krylon]

I furiously looked at the C standard (C99, anyway) and the documentation to the gcc preprocessor, and have to admit somewhat embarassedly, that you are right. The gcc preprocessor documentation clearly states:

> "If you use the macro name followed by something other than an open-parenthesis (after ignoring any spaces, tabs and comments that follow), it is not a call to the macro, and the preprocessor does not change what you have written."

Thanks for pointing this out to me!