Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!sharkey!edsews!uunet!unh!jeff
From: jeff@unh.UUCP (Jeffrey E. F. Friedl)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: fwrite man page "error"
Keywords: Oh, to be young again.
Message-ID: <939@unh.UUCP>
Date: 22 Feb 89 05:55:21 GMT
Organization: University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH
Lines: 37


Here's a cute one.
I had a user come to me asking about fread/fwrite,
showing me the man page:

    standard fread() man page "SYNTAX" section:

	 fread(ptr, sizeof(*ptr), nitems, stream)
	 char *ptr; unsigned nitems, sizeof(*ptr)
	 FILE *stream;

Pointing to "sizeof(*ptr)" then to "char *ptr", he asked
	"but won't that always be one?"

I never noticed the "error" -- sort of cute, eh? 
I can just imagine a novice user sitting with the man page
and pounding at the program wondering why it doesn't work!

I offered that the following might be better:

---------------vvvvvvv
	 fread((char*)ptr, sizeof(*ptr), nitems, stream)
	 item *ptr; unsigned nitems, sizeof(*ptr)
---------^^^^
	 FILE *stream;

which seems to make things more clear.  I left it at that.
I suppose I should tell him that sizeof(char) is !always 1, though.

	*jeff*

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey Eric Francis Friedl                             Box 2173 Babcock House
..!{uunet,decvax}!unh!jeff                          Durham New Hampshire 03824

Ever worked in Japan? Let me know your "what-to-do, what-never-to-do" stories.
I'm moving there in May (or so -- whenver the Visa comes through).