mod.std.c Digest V8#4

[Orlando Sotomayor-Diaz]

From: Orlando Sotomayor-Diaz (The Moderator) <cbosgd!std-c>


mod.std.c Digest            Wed,  3 Jul 85       Volume 8 : Issue   4 

Today's Topics:
                       /* embedded in a comment
                         the '\n' "character"
                                 UTC
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 3 Jul 85 12:47:18 edt
From: mark at cbosgd.ATT.UUCP (Mark Horton)
Subject: /* embedded in a comment
To: std-c at cbosgd.UUCP

There are situations where you really want /* embedded in a comment.
For example:
	#define DEBUG_MAIN 1	/* debugging prints in main program */
which can be portably turned off with
	/* #define DEBUG_MAIN 1	/* debugging prints in main program */
but this could generate a warning about an embedded /*.  (Not all
compilers support #if and #ifdef is a more widely used method, so
changing 1 to 0 isn't really the answer.)  Also consider where several
possible values are kept around:
	/* #define MAX	512	/* for the PDP-11 */
	#define MAX	1024	/* for the VAX */
	/* #define MAX	4096	/* for the IBM 370 */
It's unreasonable to ifdef such things out.

Thus, compilers that insist on printing warnings about embedded /*
in comments will be a pain to use.  This option should be switch
selectable.  Perhaps it would be less painful if it only checked
comments that contain newlines.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 3 Jul 85 12:47:18 edt
From: mark at cbosgd.ATT.UUCP (Mark Horton)
Subject: the '\n' "character"
To: std-c at cbosgd.UUCP

The \n "character" is somewhat more of a problem.  The C language
likes to pretend it's running on UNIX, and that this is handled by
the operating system.  However, there are a number of portability
problems caused by this notion that bytes are bytes and that newlines
will be intrepreted in the tty driver or terminal.  The rest of the
world (other operating systems and networks) use other conventions,
such as length counts or CRLF terminated lines.

Every C compiler for another operating system has had to implement
a flag to fopen where the application programmer specifies whether
the file is a text file or a binary file.  For text files, \n gets
turned into CRLF (or whatever the local convention is) and for binary
files it gets left alone.  The new OSI networking environment will
require this sort of information at the presentation layer as well,
even on UNIX.

I don't have a wonderful solution to this, but a step in the right
direction would be to standardize a flag to fopen which indicates
that the file is (or is not, depending on the default) a text file.
Otherwise, bytes should just be output bit for bit and their actions
when printed should not be part of the standard.

------------------------------

Date: 3 Jul 85 01:29:37 CDT (Wed)
From: ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!msb
Subject: UTC
To: utzoo!ihnp4!hou2d!osd

The correct abbreviation for Universal Coordinated Time is indeed UTC --
it's a French acronym.

Mark Brader, know-it-all.

------------------------------

End of mod.std.c Digest - Wed,  3 Jul 85 16:03:34 EDT
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