On useless extern "C" blocks: If the code was written to use a C++ compiler as "a better C compiler"<sup>a</sup>, then those modifying wrappers would be useful (without the #if 0, of course.) But there is nothing but confusion (and forum posts) to be gained by allowing sqlite3.c to be passed thru a C++ compiler. ---- a. This has been claimed, and I largely agree. But the code has been written for older C compilers and contains numerous violations of the C-like subset of C++, so it is futile at present to enable those extern "C" wrappers.