Multi language programming

Hello compiler wiz,


Suppose I got a software written using 2 different languages, say A and C,
where C is a fixed language. How should A be designed when it
comes to interaction with C so that the software can be compiled on
many platform/machines without modifications ( or as little as possible ) ?


There is the C++ way of doing :


extern "ALanguage"
{
// some declarations
}


This works fine if every compilers of that language use a common naming
and calling convention, given a platform/machine ( or if the compiler
for ALanguage is included which is the case for C with respect to C++ ).


Hence the question :


Can it be assumed that for a given modular language like C, FORTRAN, MODULA
the naming and calling convention is unique for a given platform/machine ?


But there are languages which for sure do not follow this principle, e.g.
C++ which use a name mangling which can be in principle specific to a
given compiler.


Hence another question :


How A should be designed to handle such a situation ?


P.S. I guess this situation requires some code modification
but how can it be minimal ?


Thanks to everyone,
I'll post a summary of mail received,


Frederic
[Sad to report that I've known lots of cases where different compilers for the
same language on the same machine use different calling sequences and name
mangles. Even C compilers usually mangle a little, e.g. adding _ before
the name. -John]
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