Bug in Unix System V C compiler

[The WITNESS]

Come on, guys!  I have complained about 4.2BSD in the past, but mainly because
I have been working with Unix for only 8 months and the system manager here
expects me to take every program we get with BSD stuff in it and get it running
on here -- while Rich thinks I'm a wizard, apprentice sorceror comes a little
closer to the mark.  (What the heck is a SIGTSTP, anyway?)

The past few weeks or so have seen the coming of wars between System V users
and Berkeleyites.  Personally, I like what I hear of 4.2 more (and am eagerly
awaiting an upgrade to it (on a new system) here), but then I have yet to hear
SysV people come out and tell us what their system really does, as opposed to
LOTS of 4.2 articles all over the net.

Will someone please tell me why it matters which is "better", anyway?  And why
we compare them at all, given that 4.2 is a programming environment and SysV
is a runtime business environment?   After all, there are not that many com-
panies that really need the C language, make, and so on (not to mention f77,
which we don't have, and lex and yacc, which we do).  Why would Widget Mfg. Co.
which has purchased a full business package (Micro Manufacturing Systems' MCS
package, requiring RM-COBOL runtime but nothing else, for example), need to
play with /usr/include/sys/callo.h?  Or "symbolic links"?  (I speak from
experience here; I do some business programming... mainly because the mfg.
package we use is not compatible with the customer order entry package; we
don't have the room on our current system to run the compatible one.)

If System V people want to do development work, they probably can, with AT&T
"add-on" packages.  Bugs?  System V is still fairly new; let them get worked
out by being reported; with enough pressure brought to bear, even AT&T will
bend.  And 4.2, from all accounts, has a few bugs of its own.

If you guys have time to burn (by flaming each other), why don't you come up
with a standardized way of easily making 4.2 and SysV source compatible?  Maybe
some kind of alternate -lc with simulations for those functions that can be
simulated, such things as the Berkeley compatibility library to present the
"old-style" Unix directory in the "new" Berkeley format, and such?  Those
without source licenses might not be able to use them, but there could be a way
to get object code for "standard" systems, and source-licensed sites for the
others could provide object versions on their own; maybe a hex-type protocol
could be used to post them to the net for VAXen, etc.  (Look out: Intel hex
format rides again! :-)  Not only will it give you something to do, it would
benefit all of us (including both Berkeley and AT&T).

<<<<flame off>>>>
-- 
		Brandon Allbery: decvax!cwruecmp{!atvax}!bsafw
		  6504 Chestnut Road, Independence, OH 44131

		  Witness, n.  To watch and learn, joyously.