If it's not in the .h file it's supposed to be a private function.

you can access it using extern from anywhere:

    // a.c
    int f( int x ) {
        return x + 1;
    }

    // b.c
    extern int f(int x );

    int main() {
        int y = f(41);
    }

but if f() had been defined as static, you couldn't do this.

"private function" doesn't mean "you can't know about this", it means "you shouldn't rely on this as a stable interface to my code".

Just because you can use the information you have to call a given function, doesn't mean you aren't violating an interface.

my point was that f() had been defined static then you can't access it from outside the translation unit it is defined in - in other words, it is "private". i'm afraid i'm unclear what your point is.

I don't see what you're getting at with respect to writing bindings.

The whole point of using "static" in that way is to prevent people from using it outside of the file.

If you need to call a static function (inline or otherwise) from outside of the compilation unit to use the API, then it's a bug in the API, not a problem with static.

I agree with you about pre-processor macros, though.