Question

In C/C++ project, mostly the file can be of either types .h or .c/.cpp. Apart from their naming difference such as header and implementation files; is there any functionality difference ?

In other words: if in a working C/C++ project what difference it makes if we change all files with .c or .cpp extension ?

[Note: We can also have #include guards for .c/.cpp files. We can skip their compilation if they are observed as headers.]

Edit:
Debate is not intended for this as I don’t have any solid use case. Rather I wanted to know, that allowing to give .h,.hxx,.i extensions are just a facility or a rule. e.g. One functionality difference I see is that .cxx files can have their likable object files.

Answer 1

What difference does it make? The compiler is perfectly happy about it. To it, it’s just files.

But to you? You makes a lot of difference:

• you’re no longer able to immediately figure out which one is the header and which one is the implementation;
• you can no longer give header and implementation the same name;