stdio.h & sprintf question

[Alton Harkcom]

   I got a bit of a laugh when I looked at the stdio.h file on
my work station. (BSD43) There was an ifdef for vax with this assignment...

char    *sprintf();             /* too painful to do right */

   Anybody know what this means?
   Can you explain it simply?
   Can you explain why it isn't defined for all machines?

Thanks in advance.

--
--harkcom at potato.pa.yokogawa.co.jp