If we're going to write a semicolon after calls of relptr_declare(),
then we don't need one inside the macro, and removing it suppresses
"empty declaration" warnings from pickier compilers (eg pademelon).
While at it, we might as well use relptr() inside relptr_declare(),
because otherwise that macro would likely go unused altogether.
Also improve the comment, which I for one found unclear,
and provide a specific example of intended usage.
C doesn't have any sort of built-in understanding of a pointer
relative to some arbitrary base address, but dynamic shared memory
segments can be mapped at different addresses in different processes,
so any sort of shared data structure stored within a dynamic shared
memory segment can't use absolute pointers. We could use something
like Size to represent a relative pointer, but then the compiler
provides no type-checking. Use stupid macro tricks to get some
type-checking.
Patch originally by me. Concept suggested by Andres Freund. Recently
resubmitted as part of Thomas Munro's work on dynamic shared memory
allocation.
Discussion: 20131205144434.GG12398@alap2.anarazel.de
Discussion: CAEepm=1z5WLuNoJ80PaCvz6EtG9dN0j-KuHcHtU6QEfcPP5-qA@mail.gmail.com
