Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mcgill-vision!mouse
From: mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: ANSI C standard distribution
Message-ID: <1446@mcgill-vision.UUCP>
Date: 18 Feb 89 02:39:46 GMT
References: <19@xenlink.UUCP> <225800106@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <310@twwells.uucp> <1989Feb7.225554.3086@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: McGill University, Montreal
Lines: 63

In article <1989Feb7.225554.3086@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
> In article <1404@mcgill-vision.UUCP> mouse@mcgill-vision.UUCP (der Mouse) writes:

>> (My reference is K&RV2; [sputtering about machine-readable copies of
>> the proposal/standard]

> Whether machine-readable copies are the "best available means" depends
> on what you are trying to do and on your definition of "best".
> [points out this (a) cuts down on false "standards" and (b) pays some
> bills]

> What, exactly, is your complaint?  Do you have a machine-readable
> copy of K&R2?  If not, why are you satisfied with it?

That's a good question, and I even went so far as to think about it for
a bit.  A partial answer appears below; another part of the answer
would be that I'm *not* entirely satisfied without a softcopy of K&RV2.

> You can bet your booties that Brian and Dennis have machine-readable
> copy

The copyright and publishing info page even says so: "This book was
typeset (pic|tbl|eqn|troff -ms) in Times Roman and Courier by the
authors, using an Autologic APS-5 phototypesetter and a DEC VAX 8550
running the 9th Edition of the UNIX(R) operating system."

> and have decided not to distribute it, probably as a condition of
> their book contract; why is this acceptable behavior for well-paid
> technical experts and highly profitable commercial publishers but not
> for underfunded standards organizations?

(It certainly *would* annoy me, if K&RV2 were being sold only by
mail-order.  I hate mail-order.)

Let's see.  In the order in which they occur to me,

a) The price of a book includes the physical book, not just the
   information therein.  (How good is the typesetting, binding, etc of
   what you get if you order the Standard?  I don't know; see also d.)

b) Inertia: I'm used to paying for books.

c) Price: I have no firm idea of the price of a copy of the draft, but
   my memory does come back with >$100US.  (Is this accurate?)

d) Mail-order only, not available at the corner bookstore.

e) "Basicness": K&R is *more* than the Standard; it contains examples
   and explanations and a bit of a tutorial.  The appendix, which is as
   close as K&R comes to the Standard, is only 71 pages out of 261.

Another part of it, I suppose, is what I percive as a bit of "Here is
how thou shalt write thy C code.  Oh, you want to know how?  Sorry,
you've got to pay $X before we'll tell you.  But you still have to do
it that way."  However fair or unfair, I resent that a bit.

(Oh yes.  Whenever I say Standard above, the term should be taken to
include drafts, as appropriate.)

					der Mouse

			old: mcgill-vision!mouse
			new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu