Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: retiring gets(3)
Message-ID: <1988Nov27.005945.29173@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1988Nov8.054845.23998@utstat.uucp> <22402@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: Sun, 27 Nov 88 00:59:45 GMT

In article <22402@watmath.waterloo.edu> atbowler@watmath.waterloo.edu (Alan T. Bowler [SDG]) writes:
>... As long as
>gets() is in the an official ANSI standard, it will be in a the validation
>suites.  Part of the boiler plate used in sales contracts to the
>the US government is that the compiler must be an officially
>validated compiler...

It is not necessary for a vendor to give up validation-suite compliance for
the sake of discouraging use of gets().  How a compiler is invoked is
compiler-specific in any case; putting gets() in a separate library and
requiring that it be explicitly included (e.g. with "-lunsafe") retains
compliance (and the ability to compile broken old programs) while still
pushing in the right direction.
-- 
Sendmail is a bug,             |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
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