Statements that start with # in C/C++ are known as preprocessor directives, that is, they are executed before compilation begins. OP has used a #define which will replace any instance of A (IF(x)) with B (while (x)) in the code.

So the IF statement is really just a while statement.

[–] Kacarott@aussie.zone 12 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

But what is it in reference to? What's the "infamous if loop"?

[–] aMockTie@lemmy.world 36 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Ah, I believe that would be this image from a college course.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 2 points 8 hours ago

I always wondered why I always had a hard time making developers not call "if" a "loop".
Turns out it was on their tests.

Glad I didn't read my college material, or I would have lost faith in my college professors.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 4 points 17 hours ago

It just occurred to that in Yorkshire dialect a while loop would actually be an until loop. Directives to the rescue!

[–] kyub@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 18 hours ago

"Infamous" just refers to newbies who sometimes call if statements "if loops". I've heard this quite a bit.

[–] AliasVortex@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

Infamous because the condition is 1 (or true), the loop never actually exits because it's always true

[–] Reil@beehaw.org 4 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

They used a macro to make 'IF' (which is distinctly not 'if') map to 'while'. So it's really a while(1) loop, which will repeat forever, or until the program is terminated, whichever comes first.

Someone's just being silly.

[–] LeFrog@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 hours ago

Thx!

'IF' (which is distinctly not 'if')

Is this something needed "for the meme" or something with this macro or C/C++? Or why the case-sensitivity here? I only know languages like Java, Python, JS. Unfortunately the ancient tongue is not known to me.