osd7@homxa.UUCP (Orlando Sotomayor-Diaz) (03/08/85)
From: Orlando Sotomayor-Diaz (The Moderator) <cbosgd!std-c>
mod.std.c Digest Thu, 7 Mar 85 Volume 4 : Issue 7
Today's Topics:
\a - does it encourage evil programming?
what ftell returns
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Date: 7 Mar 85 14:13:29 CST (Thu)
From: ihnp4!utzoo!laura
Subject: \a - does it encourage evil programming?
To: ihnp4!cbosgd!std-c
There is a fair bit of code out there which honks and hoots at you. Most
of this was written with \007s enbedded in the code. This is
extremely annoying, but one gets used to it. Better code is written
by people who look up terminal characteristics in termcap or terminfo
so that people who want quiet can define appropriate sequences.
If you put \a into the language, I already fear what will happen.
\a will be defined to be \007 (in ascii) and people will use it, and use
it, and use it... I suggest we all write to get this particular
feature removed from the language before we are all beeped, honked, and
hooted at constantly.
On a related note, I can't think of any use of \e (escape) that should not
be a primative found somewhere in termcap or terminfo. Perhaps I am
missing something, but if I am not then what goes for \a also goes for
\e. And those environments which do not have a termcap/terminfo facility?
I would rather that *they* get one than we all get \a.
Laura Creighton
utzoo!laura
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Date: Wed, 6 Mar 85 13:08:03 est
From: Steve Ludlum <stevel@haddock.UUCP>
Subject: what ftell returns
To: std-c@cbosgd.ATT.UUCP
> I would recommend, therefore, that the object returned by ftell
> and used as an argument to fseek be defined as a structure with
> implementation defined contents and that no calculations be
> permitted on the contents of that structure.
It is unreasonable to not allow manipulation of the argument
passed to fseek. What machines do not have long as at least a 32
bit int. [?] Is it lazy compiler or architecture limitations. [?]
Do we really want to support ANSI C on such a machine?
Do we really want to mangle ANSI C for that one machine.[?]
It can't be a major machine! Maybe a PDP-8? long = 24 bits?
There are limits to what should be supported.
Steve Ludlum, decvax!yale-co!ima!stevel, {ihnp4!cbosgd}!ima!stevel
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End of mod.std.c Digest - Thu, 7 Mar 85 21:02:15 EST
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