Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!necntc!ima!haddock!karl
From: karl@haddock.ISC.COM (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: magic cookies given back by ftell, and used in fseek
Message-ID: <4253@haddock.ISC.COM>
Date: 26 May 88 19:05:45 GMT
References: <129@lakart.UUCP> <1024@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Reply-To: karl@haddock.ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Organization: Interactive Systems, Boston
Lines: 10

In article <1024@cresswell.quintus.UUCP> ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>The UNIX "ftell" manual page warns that on non-UNIX systems "arithmetic may
>not meaningfully be performed on" magic cookies, and you have to regard
>comparing for equality as arithmetic.

That's not the common interpretation of "performing arithmetic".  I think the
ANSI Standard should explicitly state which comparison operators, if any, are
guaranteed to be meaningful for fseek-cookies in a conforming implementation.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (ima!haddock!karl or karl@haddock.isc.com), The Walking Lint