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From: thad@cup.portal.com (Thad P Floryan)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general,comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: 3B1 C runtime library bug; do you have it too?
Message-ID: <37666@cup.portal.com>
Date: 7 Jan 91 02:12:07 GMT
References: <37567@cup.portal.com> <1991Jan5.152216.18838@chance.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 29

john@chance.UUCP (John R. MacMillan) in <1991Jan5.152216.18838@chance.UUCP>
writes:

	|	printf ("%0*.*f\n", p+3, p, frac);
	                  ^
	The printf(3) man page says the spec is "...the character %...zero
	or more flags...an optional decimal digit specifying minimum field
	width...a period followed by a decimal digit", and "a field width or
	precision may be indicated by an asterisk instead of a digit string"

	Now the '0' after the '%' above is not one of the listed flag chars,
	but the '*' is only acceptable *instead of* a field width.  So I'd
	say that by the 3.51 man page I have, the specification is illegal.

	Am I missing something?

Nope.  I read the 3.51m "man" page and interpret it the same way as you.  As
mentioned in a prior posting, I've been using the K&R ("The C Programming
Language", Kernighan & Ritchie)) and the H&S ("C: A Reference Manual", Harbison
and Steele) for so long that I've come to take certain things for granted.

It's clear the 3B1's C library is simply obsolete.  Every other compiler's
runtime I've used (on other systems, even those dated prior to 3.51's 1987
date) do perform per the K&R and H&S specs.

I'm going to be "looking into" a replacement for the pertinent functions as
mentioned in the just-prior posting.

Thad Floryan [ thad@cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]