title: Does the C11 keyword '_Atomic' count as type qualifier or specifier if followed by a whitespace and a left parenthesis?
body: <p>Reading the N1570 draft of the C11 standard, it says on p. 121 about the _Atomic keyword:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>If the _Atomic keyword is immediately followed by a left parenthesis,
    it is interpreted as a type specifier (with a type name), not as a
    type qualifier.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Now I am wondering, what constitutes as 'immediate' in this context?</p>
  
  <p>I find the wording quite ambiguous:
  Are the two following lines of code guaranteed by the standard to always be identical?</p>
  
  <p>Unambiguous:</p>
  
  <pre><code>static _Atomic(type) var;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Ambiguous:</p>
  
  <pre><code>static _Atomic (type) var;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Does the insertion of a whitespace destroy the immediacy of the left parenthesis?</p>
  
  <p>While in the first case, the keyword is always a type specifier, in the second case I am not sure whether it is a type specifier or a type qualifier and whether that is a question of interpretation or firmly defined by the standard. I am also referring to cases where 'var' is a pointer.</p>