I always thought that one of the features of C++ is that variables can
be declared ANYWHERE (such as near where you're going to use them). 
However I ran across a situation in MSVC 1.6 with a CPP module that
seems to contradict this.  Can someone explain to me why?
If I write a switch statement thusly, I get compiler errors:
switch (foo) {
    case 1 :
        int bar = 2;
        break;
    case 2 :
        int bar = 3;
        break;
}
However, if I write the code this way there are no errors:
switch (foo) {
    case 1 : {
        int bar = 2;
        break;
    }
    case 2 : {
        int bar = 3;
        break;
    }
}
I was under the assumption that the braces weren't necessary in C++ as
far as declaring variables is concerned.  Why then do I need the
braces?  Do the added braces affect portability in any way?
 * KWQ/2 1.2i * 
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