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From: bill@green.UUCP (Bill Bogstad)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: why "gmtime" but not "read" and "write"?
Message-ID: <478@green.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 20-Sep-87 17:57:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: green.478
Posted: Sun Sep 20 17:57:39 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 24-Sep-87 00:43:49 EDT
References: <706@sugar.UUCP>
Reply-To: bill@green.UUCP (Bill Bogstad)
Organization: JHU Biophysics Dept., Baltimore, MD
Lines: 35

In article <706@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>Y'all are missing the point. Why include "gmtime" and "localtime" in Ansi-C
>(other than to keep the well known false sense of well-being when trying to
>port UNIX programs to non-UNIX systems), but leave read/write/etc out? It
>just doesn't seem consistent to me. Since most non-UNIX-based 'C' compilers
>in the real world implement read and write and *not* gmtime and localtime,
>you don't even have precedent behind you.

	"Most" systems have some type of real-time clock and it would be nice
to be able to access the clock from the C language.  Having a standard way
to do so would be even nicer.  The method chosen has been available in the
standard unix environment since at least Version 7.  Rhetorical question:
What about systems without clocks?  Answer: What about systems that don't do
I/O?  (Making stdio vs read/write a mote point. They just have memory mapped
registers.)

	However, "most" systems do allow I/O.  Fopen(), fclose(), etc.  are
provided as the standard way to access this feature (also since at least
Version 7).  It has been stated by several people that it is very hard to
impossible to fully implement the semantics of read/write on some systems.
I do not have personal knowledge of such systems, but I am willing to admit
their existence.  Should the C language standard require things of these
systems (a particular form of I/O) that they are incapable of providing?

[If you would like, you may consider the above rationalizations on my part
to support an already closed mind.  Actually, they probably are.  BTW, I
would also like read/write to be implemented on any system on which it can
be.]

					Bill Bogstad

-- 
Bill Bogstad				bogstad@hopkins-eecs-bravo.arpa
Work: (301)338-8019  Home: No way.	jhunix!{ green!bill | bph_cwjb }
The Johns Hopkins University, Biophysics Department, Baltimore MD 21218