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From: clgreen@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu (Cliff Green)
Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Subject: Frustrated trying to be portable
Keywords: ANSI C, standard library
Message-ID: <1991Feb17.203337.20569@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Date: 17 Feb 91 20:33:37 GMT
Sender: news@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Nets)
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Organization: National Severe Storms Laboratory
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I'm getting somewhat frustrated in making a fairly complex package I'm working
on to be portable.  I've worked on large software projects for years, but this
is the first one that I'm trying to make portable between various hardware and
os's (Unix, VMS on VAXen, Sun, SGI, etc.).  Quickly realizing the uses of ANSI
C, I ordered the standard (thanks, FAQ) and had the sysadmin on our Suns 
install a copy of GCC.  VAX C seems to be pretty close in most of the basic
aspects of the standard, but there still seems to be a lot missing in regards
to the C library calls using the GCC compiler (with the gcc-include directory).
I would like all the standard include files complete with the standard
function prototypes (I'm a big believer in prototyping) and the standard
library functions themselves.  Specifically on the Sun I'm missing:
  stdlib    include file (kind of important, to say the least)
  remove    function (I shouldn't have to #define remove  unlink)
  strerror  function (I like setting up my own error handling/message catalogs)

Anyway, am I missing something, or is the state of ANSI C compilers still in a
formative stage?  I've gotten around all these problems with #ifdef statements,
but that nullifies the whole idea of a standard, doesn't it?  I appreciate all
the help you can give this standards novice.

Cliff Green
clgreen@nsslsun.gcn.uoknor.edu     (405) 366-0470 (work)