Win32: BitTest, BitTestAndComplement, ... <- How to disable this junk?

Question

WinNT.h has the following lines in it, in the VS2008 SP1 install:

#define BitTest _bittest
#define BitTestAndComplement _bittestandcomplement
#define BitTestAndSet _bittestandset
#define BitTestAndReset _bittestandreset
#define InterlockedBitTestAndSet _interlockedbittestandset
#define InterlockedBitTestAndReset _interlockedbittestandreset

I have a number of templates that are based on BitTest<>()

Does anyone know of a simple way to disable these #defines?

Oftentimes MS does provide a #define XXX symbol which, if defined, will disable some offending portion of their header - e.g. NOMINMAX.

I have been unable to find such a solution to the above problem.

If you share frustration with Microsoft's many dubious choices, the read on. If not, stop here. ;)

Editorializing:

• Why couldn't Microsoft just use the _bittest itself???
• Or why couldn't they use BITTEST like every knows you should - always use all-caps for macros!
• Microsoft is still #defining things in 2010?! WTF?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, Microsoft believes it's OK to make their APIs use macros for names since they do it for 95% or more of their APIs to make them work 'transparently' for ANSI vs. Unicode APIs.

It doesn't look like they've provided a clean way to prevent the macro from being defined. I think you're stuck with choosing from several bad options, including:

• #undef BitTest yourself
• modify the winnt.h header
• segregate your code that uses Windows APIs directly into modules that aren't dependent on your BitTest<> template

I'm sure there are other options - I'm just not sure sure which one is the least distasteful.