Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!samsung!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!star.cs.vu.nl!ast@cs.vu.nl From: ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) Newsgroups: comp.os.minix Subject: Message-ID: <9864@star.cs.vu.nl> Date: 7 May 91 10:36:25 GMT Sender: news@cs.vu.nl Organization: Fac. Wiskunde & Informatica, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam Lines: 28 This discussion was started in beta-minix, but actually it is not related to 1.6.15 specifically, so I think it is better to move it to the main group. The question arose of where prototypes for things like std_err should go. I suggested creating a new header file, for the prototypes of these little MINIX-specific library routines. Bruce pointed out that putting #include in utility programs makes those programs nonconforming (to POSIX). This is arguable. POSIX merely defines the functionality, and does not say how the program should work. On the other hand, it is true that such a program will not be portable to a random UNIX system. However, the real problem there is the use of std_err itself, not the include for its prototype. Things like std_err and printk etc were devised to fight bloat. Using the new ANSI compiler and libraries, some programs have increased 6-fold in size due to the ANSI requirements. My solution is to avoid stdio where it is not really needed, and use things like std_err. I don't want all the binaries exploding in size because that will greatly increase the number of disks in the distribution, hence the price. Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)