Why does C standard consider each compiler flag a separate implementation?

[Doug Gwyn]

In article <2746 at ttrdc.UUCP> levy at ttrdc.UUCP (Daniel R. Levy) writes:
>WHY does the proposed standard say this?

What would you prefer that it say?
I bet you can't word your notion in a form acceptable for use in a standard.

The basic problem is that the Standard would have to discuss non-conforming
implementations in order to specify which variations in invocation would be
conforming, but by its nature the Standard cannot impose requirements on
non-conforming implementations.

Another problem is that there is no universal way of invoking compilers.