Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!nrl-cmf!ames!pasteur!agate!eris!mwm
From: mwm@eris (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Why I won't use ANSI C
Message-ID: <6737@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 27 Jan 88 23:08:57 GMT
References: <7170@brl-smoke.ARPA> <7183@brl-smoke.ARPA> <1962@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: mwm@eris.UUCP (Mike (My watch has windows) Meyer)
Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica
Lines: 37

Did Doug post something about the new dpANS having a different
treatment of exit? I can't think of any other reason why Rahul keeps
harping on like so:

In article <1962@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
<Can't argue with this sentiment.  I doubt very much, though, that you
<will find a high level of consensus in favor of ANSI's stand on the
<exit(zero/nonzero) issue outside of the ANSI committe itself.  It seems
<to be essentially VMS users versus everybody else.

Every C implementation I've used except for some old VMS C and
pcc-ported-to-VMS compilers used exit(0) -> everything is fine,
exit(something that isn't 0) -> things aren't find, and what isn't
fine and how far it is from fine depends on the environment.

The draft I've got my hands on says:

	void exit(int status)
	[...]
	if the value of status is zero or EXIT_SUCCESS, an
	implementation-defined form of the status successful
	termination is returned. If the value of status is
	EXIT_FAILURE, an implementation-defined form of the status
	unsuccessful termination is returned. Otherwise, the status is
	implementation-defined.

This means that things written for the environments I've dealt with
outside of VMS will work as well as before. And it also gives us a
pair of defines (one of which can presumably be 0 everywhere,
including VMS) for good/bad exits. Seems like a good thing to me.

	<mike
--
Come all you rolling minstrels,				Mike Meyer
And together we will try,				mwm@berkeley.edu
To rouse the spirit of the air,				ucbvax!mwm
And move the rolling sky.				mwm@ucbjade.BITNET