c - Weird compilation error in Visual Studio 2008

Question

I have a problem compiling the following code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <limits.h>
int main () {
    printf("short: [%d,%d]
",SHRT_MIN,SHRT_MAX);
    printf("int: [%d, %d]
",INT_MIN, INT_MAX);
    printf("long: [%d, %d]
",LONG_MIN,LONG_MAX);
    int aa=017;
    printf("%d
",aa);
    return 0;
}

Error message is:

1>c:icex1ex2ex2.c(12) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before 'type'
1>c:icex1ex2ex2.c(13) : error C2065: 'aa' : undeclared identifier

However, compilation for this is fine:

    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <limits.h>
    int main () {
        int aa=017;
        printf("short: [%d,%d]
",SHRT_MIN,SHRT_MAX);
        printf("int: [%d, %d]
",INT_MIN, INT_MAX);
        printf("long: [%d, %d]
",LONG_MIN,LONG_MAX);
        printf("%d
",aa);
        return 0;
    }

Any idea what the issue is?

Answer 1

In C, variables previously had to be declared at the top of the scope, before any code is executed. This isn't the case in C99 (which Visual Studio doesn't implement.)