Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!umd5!cvl!elsie!ado
From: ado@elsie.UUCP (Arthur David Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Binary I/O on stdin/stdout?
Message-ID: <8037@elsie.UUCP>
Date: 29 Mar 88 18:13:24 GMT
References: <302@goofy.megatest.UUCP> <225800017@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <7576@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Organization: NIH-LEC, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 10

> > Couldn't freopen simply return ((FILE *) 0) in such cases, much as
> > localtime is allowed to return -1 if local time can't be determined?
> 
> Sure; but then what good does it to to specify the facility if
> portable code couldn't rely on it working?

Same as with localtime:  it provides a standardized way for accessing the
capability *when it is available.*
-- 
olson@ncifcrf.gov	"...that lucky ol' Sun ain't got nothin' to do..."