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From: rwhite@nusdhub.UUCP (Robert C. White Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: What real non-UNIX 'C' compilers implement...
Message-ID: <115@nusdhub.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Oct-87 18:52:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: nusdhub.115
Posted: Wed Oct  7 18:52:49 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Oct-87 13:04:44 EDT
References: <721@sugar.UUCP> <814@sugar.UUCP> <29156@sun.uucp> <1059@moscom.UUCP> <29914@sun.uucp>
Organization: National University, San Diego
Lines: 55
Summary: It Is Relevant...

In article <29914@sun.uucp>, guy%gorodish@Sun.COM (Guy Harris) writes:
 [Lots of Stuff about "Standards" and things Deleted]
> distinction here between "standard library routines" and "system routines" is
> not relevant.

	1)  One, If there was no distinction, there would be no distinction.

	2)  A good use for seperating the segments is for the CONSTRUCTION
OF SPECIALIZED LIBRARIES.  If you are writing a screen handling lib,
like curses or termcap (Go Ahaed, tell me nobody uses those! I dare you.),
You dont wan't that new library to be dependant on loading other libraries.
If you don't have a distinction drawn, and you put together a library of
your favorite fast and dirty routines to do X, all your programs will
be HUGE if you got just the wrong call.
	To mix apples and oranges, A perfect example of cross-dependant
libraries is: any program compiled with IBM-PASCAL v1.0.  It makes A mess.

	3) If you want an alphabetical listing of calls and functions
turn to the "index", that is what it is there for.

	4) When doing the "small, fast, and critical" things needed
for many applications like drivers and such, traversing a library
structure, [i.e. function calls function calls OS-Primitive],
can be much slower than just calling an OS-Primitive.


	MOST of the griping I see on 1) Organizing the manuals,
2) Setting indentation standards, 3) Pointer "stupidity", and
4) "Brain-damaged" articles of fact, come from people who either
A) are not used to what they are seeing, or B) Bought a machine
whos internals are not best suited for the "standard way of doing
this"
	You all seem to be forgetting that the idea behind a
standard is that it will "Be Most Usefull To The Greatest Number
of People and Environments"

	If you dont like the Manuals, get another set from someone
else.  I have three sets of manuals for C.  1) the standard manual
for my 3b2/600 (devided by the standard 2 and 3[C|S|M|N|X|F] method)
2) A quick refrence (by Prentice Hall, under direction from bell-labs)
which is devided by Library MODULE (sou you can pre-judge the run
image size) and 3) The refrence set for Microsoft C 4.0.  [I don't
include my K&R refrence, I think of it like the bible, it just must
be.]

Disclaimer: you all know if you should be included in "you all",
	If you don't know, you probably are, If you don't care,
	you probably arn't.  If I didn't mean it, I wouldn't
	say it.  I only say these things behind my employers back.
	If I misspelled it, but you know what I meant, I don't need
	to hear about it, if you don't know what I menat, the
	clarification wont help, get the "Cliff Notes".
	Is this enough mommy, I want tot go home now....

Rob ("Who asked you anyway?") White.