Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!barmar
From: barmar@think.com (Barry Margolin)
Subject: Re: ANSI C standard library
Message-ID: <1991Apr12.082527.20618@Think.COM>
Sender: news@Think.COM
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
References: <1991Apr11.185038.108@cpqhou.uucp>
Date: Fri, 12 Apr 91 08:25:27 GMT

In article <1991Apr11.185038.108@cpqhou.uucp> uunet!cpqhou!pipkinsj (Jeff Pipkins @Adv Dev@SE hou ) writes:
>I'm looking for an ANSI C implementation of the ANSI C standard library.

There are many functions in the standard C library that can't be
implemented in ANSI C, because they are interfaces to OS-dependent
facilities.  For instance, fopen() has to call something analogous to
Unix's open(), signal() has to do whatever is necessary to hook into the
system's interrupt mechanism, system() has to call a system-dependent
shell routine, and malloc() has to use the OS's memory management facility.

The math and string functions can be implemented portably, but they're
usually implemented in assembler for performance reasons.
--
Barry Margolin, Thinking Machines Corp.

barmar@think.com
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