+/* DIM gives the number of elements in the one-dimensional array a. */
+#define DIM(a) (sizeof (a) / sizeof (*(a)))
+
+/* LEN gives the strlen() of string constant s, excluding the
+ * terminating NUL. */
+#define LEN(s) (sizeof (s) - 1)
+
+/* FENDNULL fends off NULL by giving an empty string instead. */
+#define FENDNULL(s) ((s) ? (s) : "")
+
+/* PLURALS gives a pointer to the string "s" when n isn't 1, and to the
+ * empty string "" when it is. Suitable for obtaining the plural `s'
+ * used for English nouns. It treats -1 as plural, as does GNU gettext.
+ * Having output vary for plurals is annoying for those writing parsers;
+ * better to phrase the output such that no test is needed, e.g.
+ * "messages found: 42". */
+extern const char plurals[];
+#define PLURALS(n) (plurals + ((n) == 1))
+