How do I mark code with side effects?

Question

I'm working on a project on an 8051 where every byte counts. As such, I am using some global variables where I normally wouldn't. The normal method of passing pointers into a function adds too much overhead here.

I have a number of functions that use single bit variables (a compiler specific extension to C) to signal the outcome of a function in addition to the normal return value.

bit global_error_flag = 0;
bit global_data_ready_flag = 0;

unsigned char A_Function (void) {
    // Do some stuff

    if ( badness ) {
        global_error_flag = 0;
        global_data_ready_flag = 1;

        return 0;
    }

    if ( data_is_ready_use ) {
        global_data_ready_flag = 1;
    }

    return a_value;    
}

void Other_Function (void) {
    unsigned char c;

    c = A_Function();

    if( global_error_flag) {
        // Do error stuff here.
    }
    else
    if( global_data_ready_flag ) {
        // Do data processing here.
    }
    global_error_flag = 0;
    global_data_ready_flag = 0;

}

Given that the technique is evil, is there some way I can make the code clearer?

How best should I indicate which function calls will have the side-effect of setting these flags? Are comments enough? Should I name the functions to indicate their API (quasi-hungarian-style)? Should I use a macro to mark such calls:

#define FUNCTION_SETS_FLAGS(code) (code)

FUNCTION_SETS_FLAGS( c = A_Function() );

Any other ideas?

Answer 1

Using a convention, whether you want to call it "Hungarian" or not, is the best way I can think to mark this offhand. Stylistically, some sort of naming prefix would be preferable over the empty #define, at least to me.

This is actually pretty common, I think. I know that the S60 programming environment uses a lot of conventional tags on functions to indicate that they throw exceptions, for example.

Answer 2

Your globals are labelled for clarity, that's a good start.

Ideally you want something that won't compile if you get it wrong. That means macros and comments won't work.

I'd stick to a naming convention for the functions - not necessarily Hungarian, but something like A_Function_Returns_Flags, or less verbose if you can think of that.