Why doesn't ANSI C have namespaces?

Question

Having namespaces seems like no-brainer for most languages. But as far as I can tell, ANSI C doesn\'t support it. Why not? Any plans to include it in a future standard?

Answer 1

Not an answer, but not a comment. C doesn't provide a way to define namespace explicitly. It has variable scope. For example:

int i=10;

struct ex {
  int i;
}

void foo() {
  int i=0;
}

void bar() {
  int i=5;
  foo();
  printf("my i=%d\n", i);
}

void foobar() {
  foo();
  bar();
  printf("my i=%d\n", i);
}

You can use qualified names for variables and functions:

mylib.h

void mylib_init();
void mylib_sayhello();

The only difference from namespaces it that you cannot be using and cannot import from mylib.