Newsgroups: news.software.b
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Cnews vs. ANSI C (was Re: Cnews and gcc 1.36 on UNIXPC)
Message-ID: <1989Dec2.235748.7304@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1989Dec2.022346.436@ivucsb.sba.ca.us> <89Dec2.021206est.2151@neat.cs.toronto.edu> <21546@usc.edu>
Date: Sat, 2 Dec 89 23:57:48 GMT

In article <21546@usc.edu> blarson@dianne.usc.edu (bob larson) writes:
>> ...compiling C News with an ANSI C compiler (alleged or otherwise)
>> will void your warranty...]
>
>Does this mean than C news won't work on a C compiler without the
>"traditional" bugs, (such as using comments as token pasting, and
>substituting macro paramaters in quoted strings)...

We don't commit such vilenesses.  Our attitude towards Reiserisms like
this resembles our attitude towards cockroaches.

> ...or just that it
>doesn't take advantage of the new features in ANSI C...

The main problem is areas like function prototyping.  Personally, I think
Geoff exaggerates the non-ANSIness of the code, but there are problems
here and there with making things acceptable to *both* current compilers
and ANSI compilers, and these have generally been resolved in favor of
current compilers.

>... I'm contemplating porting C news to os9/68k...
>(Yes, I realize this means translating all the shell scripts to C.)

Between the shell scripts and the awk scripts, this will be a fair-sized
job, but the C code should not be a major problem.
-- 
Mars can wait:  we've barely   |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
started exploring the Moon.    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu