Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-picayune.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!jik From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) Newsgroups: comp.unix.programmer Subject: Re: List of routines safe to use in signals? Message-ID: <1990Dec13.205957.25208@athena.mit.edu> Date: 13 Dec 90 20:59:57 GMT References: <1960@necisa.ho.necisa.oz> <59190@brunix.UUCP> <1990Dec12.050527.2152@athena.mit.edu> <1990Dec13.022804.7712@scuzzy.in-berlin.de> Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system) Reply-To: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 23 In article <1990Dec13.022804.7712@scuzzy.in-berlin.de>, src@scuzzy.in-berlin.de (Heiko Blume) writes: |> don't get me wrong, but there are so many things that are in the |> man page, but just don't work. Then they should be fixed as they are found. A man page for a library function is a specification for that function. Degenerating a little bit, a specification for a function is also a specification for that function. The definition and purpose of a specification in computer programming is that it tells you, as a programmer, what YOU need to do and what the FUNCTION guarantees to do when you call it. Saying that we shouldn't listen to what's in man pages because there are mistakes in man pages is like saying that whenever you put an answer into a crossword puzzle and peek at the answer key and it's different, you should assume that the answer key is wrong since there have been mistakes in answer keys in the past. -- Jonathan Kamens USnail: MIT Project Athena 11 Ashford Terrace jik@Athena.MIT.EDU Allston, MA 02134 Office: 617-253-8085 Home: 617-782-0710