Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!hc!beta!unm-la!unmvax!nmtsun!hydrovax
From: hydrovax@nmtsun.nmt.edu (M. Warner Losh)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: exit(-1)
Message-ID: <1233@nmtsun.nmt.edu>
Date: 16 Jan 88 20:15:53 GMT
References: <502@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> <6935@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1179@wjvax.UUCP> <1843@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Organization: NMT Hydrology program
Lines: 30
Keywords: exit, zero
Summary: Context

In article <1843@bsu-cs.UUCP>, dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
> In article <23160@cca.CCA.COM> g-rh@CCA.CCA.COM.UUCP (Richard Harter) writes:
> >In this case, 0 is a magic number -- it is a coded value and the wise
> >(read those who learned by being burnt) use symbolic names which are
> >defined in one place only.
> 
> But zero is not a magic number,
> Rahul Dhesi         UUCP:  <backbones>!{iuvax,pur-ee,uunet}!bsu-cs!dhesi
Rahul,  any number is magic.  We associate Zero with a correct
exit, ONLY BECAUSE WE HAVE BE TAUGH THIS BY UNIX.  If you had ever worked
wit (a real operating system :-)) VMS, then you know that an ODD number
is sucess, while an even one is an error.  Both systems are equally
valid, since they are arbitrary abstractions.

FLAME ON
Your statements about valid uses of zero THAT ARE DEFINED TO BE VALID IN
C (K&R version), are so amazinly BOGUS, that I'm not even going to
include them in this article.  THE WHOLE WORLD IS NOT UNIX, VMS, MVS,
or any other operating system.  Please try to remeber that there are some
things in a "standard" 'C' that are part of C (like the zero indexing)
and somethings that are part of the environment that 'C' lives in (the
exit() stuff for one).
FLAME OFF


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