Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: BSD rindex, etc.
Message-ID: <4102@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 28 Sep 90 18:53:24 GMT
References: <8155@milton.u.washington.edu> <JAD.90Sep26165139@hpcndnm.cnd.hp.com>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 20

>	You might be better off using symbols other than hpux for
>portability.

Yup, given that HP-UX is *not* the only system out there that has
<string.h> but not <strings.h>.

With any luck, as ANSI C and POSIX become more common on UNIX systems, a
lot of this nonsense will go away (ANSI C says the routines are called
"strchr()" and "strrchr()", and the include file is called <string.h>,
so in 4.4BSD Berkeley will hopefully get with the program - preferably
with a "strchr()" implementation that's no slower than "index()", and a
"strrchr()" implementation that's no slower than "rindex()"!)

>Be aware that linking in this routines may cause your application to
>behave differently by redefining signal().

If their application was originally written for a BSD environment, it
may well *want* to behave differently; it may be depending on
4.2andupBSD "signal()" behavior, rather than "traditional" "signal()"
behavior.