C99 and C++ allow statements before declarations in functions. This is not allowed by the C89 language, but as an extension, the TI compiler allows such statements in relaxed mode. However, in certain circumstances, the compiler may emit the 'error: expected "}"' for otherwise legal code which has statements before declarations. This problem can only occur in relaxed C89 mode (which is the default mode), and 1) you have a function with statements that start in the left-most column, or 2) you use macros where the macro body contains C code with statements before declarations.