dal@syntel.mn.org (Dale Schumacher) (10/02/89)
I've been having news posting problems recently, so please forgive me
if you've seen something like this before. With all the recent talk
(and postings) about new libc code, I thought I should post a message
about the PD libc project I'm coordinating with help from a fair number
of net volunteers. First a little history...
The dLibs standard library (public domain) has been in use since October
of 1987 and is distributed with the Sozobon C compiler (also PD) for the
Atari ST. It is quite a complete collection of standard routines. Two
major classes of routines that were missing were floating point routines
and *nix specific features (it was originally developed under an MS-DOS
clone OS).
I'm currently working on v2.0 of dLibs (it will be the 4th release). This
release will entail a major restructuring of the library. I'm freeing the
library from many system dependent assumptions and trying to work only with
the assumption of POSIX compliant OS support. I'm also making sure that
the relevent headers and functions all comply with the X3J11 pANS for C.
This release will include IEEE floating point code and several useful sets
of utility routines such as getopt, regexp and dirent routines. The code
is being written such that it will compile under either an old-style K&R
compiler or a new X3J11 compiler. All code in the library will be publically
redistributable. In short, it should be highly portable and very complete.
I'm not alone on this project. There are at least a dozen people from all
around the world who are contributing to this effort. I have lots of
well-written source code to work from. The header files (X3J11 and POSIX)
have been completed, though they will probably be modified as the code
is integrated. I don't want to post much yet, since there is still a lot
of cleanup and integration to do, but I will send pieces to various people
who show interest in the project, particularly if they will be contributing
code. Let's work with each other rather than against. I have a lot more
than just the stdio code to post when it's all done.
The recently posted stdio implementations have been quite good overall
as is the code distributed with cnews! I'd like the authors of these
packages (Earl Chew and Norbert Schlenker) to contact me soon. Let's
coordinate our efforts and create something with value beyond just the
Minix realm.
PS. I've begun posting some of the new header files to the comp.std.c
newsgroup for critical review :-) There's not a lot of traffic there,
so I would suggest that further discussion, unless directly related to
Minix specifically, could be held in that newsgroup.
\\ / Dale Schumacher 399 Beacon Ave.
\\ / (alias: Dalnefre') St. Paul, MN 55104-3527
>< ...umn-cs!midgard.mn.org!syntel!dal United States of America
/ \\ "What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out,
/ \\ which is the exact opposite." -Bertrand Russell