Minor note: mingw-builds has mingw-w64 binary bundles with gcc 4.8.2-seh, Qt 5.2.0, Qt Creator 3.0.0 (450 MB). The compiler without Qt is about 50 MB though.
Consts in C are more like read-only variables than actual consts. Basically, C assumes you'll take the address of a const and actually modify it. A compiler is only allowed to treat a const like you might expect if the compiler confirms you never use the address of the const.
i think it is very bad design choice in c (othervise fenomenal
language) and i distaste this much , I just need the const to
use it like in the c++, it they need not constant const they could
use at least some const const that could be used here or something
i was speaking about this many times though (on other forums) so i do not want to repeat this here - but i would like to spread
some need for const usable in arrays in c ! :C
i think it is very bad design choice in c (othervise fenomenal
language) and i distaste this much , I just need the const to
use it like in the c++, it they need not constant const they could
use at least some const const that could be used here or something
i was speaking about this many times though (on other forums) so i do not want to repeat this here - but i would like to spread
some need for const usable in arrays in c ! :C
C isn't going to change this just because you dislike #define. As you admit, #define does exactly what you want. In C, #define is for compile-time stuff, and const is for run-time stuff. And what you want is absolutely possible with const at block scope (inside braces), just not at global scope. Global scope has special rules in both C and C++.
It sounds like you are assuming C++ guarantees certain code behaves the same on every compiler when it actually does not. Here is an interesting article explaining some problems with const in C++, and even times when behavior depends on the compiler. C does not like putting people into situations where different compilers generate different results, especially when a language feature like #define already exists that has well-defined behavior.
