Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!ai-lab!life!burley From: burley@albert.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Craig Burley) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: moving towards the standard ANSI with old c code Message-ID: Date: 19 Apr 91 21:46:57 GMT References: <8452@umd5.umd.edu> Sender: news@ai.mit.edu Distribution: na Organization: Free Software Foundation 545 Tech Square Cambridge, MA 02139 Lines: 53 In-reply-to: jjk@jupiter.astro.umd.edu's message of 19 Apr 91 17:43:12 GMT In article <8452@umd5.umd.edu> jjk@jupiter.astro.umd.edu (Jim Klavetter) writes: 2 related sets of questions: 1. What is the timescale for all compilers to be ANSI? And what is the timescale for most compilers not accepting old c (I know it is often called K&R c, but I will use the term old C to mean nonANSI c)? ISO has mandated that all C compilers be ANSI compatible by November 5, 1991 at 5:00 pm GMT, and that all C compilers no longer accept old C code not conforming to ANSI C requirements by June 12, 1992 at 3:45 pm GMT. The first requirement can be gotten around by not calling a compiler a C compiler, but calling it something else instead. The second can be gotten around by providing a compiler switch to allow K&R C, although ISO mandates that this switch not be made the default on any installation except PDP-11 systems not connected to networks more than 10% of their mean annual uptime. 2. When should I be worrying about updating my libraries (if not my programs) to ANSI c? Should this be done all at once or can I do it as needed? If you are a compiler vendor, you should do the update all at once and by the 1991 date mentioned above. If you are a user, the answer depends on when and whether you will be compiling and/or linking your application with an ANSI C compiler/library and where you live or work. It is obvious that it needs to be done sometime, but when? While ISO doesn't mandate application conversion timeframes, the U.S. Government Center for Computer Applications Maintenance (gccam) does; however, the dates vary according to geography (usually the city nearest to where you live or, more typically, where your corporation has its main business address). For information on these dates, call gccam at 1-800-256-5377. If a recording comes on and states a number, ignore anything else it says, and that number is the number of days you have left to convert all your code over to ANSI C, as this means the countdown has begun for your area. (This applies only to existing C code; existing Fortran code need not be converted over to Fortran 90 code for quite some time, pending finalization of the standard by X3J3.) jjk@astro.umd.edu also for Athabasca and Reudi Jim Klavetter Astronomy UMD College Park, MD 20742 You wouldn't be a freshman, would you? (-: -- James Craig Burley, Software Craftsperson burley@gnu.ai.mit.edu