G'Day Paul,

-=> Quoting Paul Edwards to Frank Adam <=-

Geez, did you write the ISO ? :)
Without wanting to start WW3 over this, sticking to any standards will not 
make one a better tradesman or in this case, programmer.
 
 FA> I have actually made a decent effort to write portably for any publicly 
 PE> Hmmm, I wonder. 
Up to my ability, yes. Passed that i have to resort to what's available to me 
in Borland, at least until i learn different ways of doing that routine.
It's a normal learning curve, i'm sure you've been through it, unless you're 
rich enough and had enough time to do a full course on C.

 FA> portability for my own code,
 FA> after all time is money. 
 FA> It may be a problem later on if i buy another compiler, but most of the 
 FA> i finish won't need repair by then, or won't be needed anymore. 
 PE> I tend to think that a program not worth porting is a program
 PE> not worth writing.  Why would you not want to run your program
 PE> on a Unix system?  Or MVS?  Or VAX?  Or Macintosh?
Basicallly 'cause i don't have them, as i've said above, code i write for 
myself, for my DOS based PC.At this stage i don't have either the time or 
possibly knowledge to start anything big, worth releasing.But if i did and 
came up with a world beater DOS only program, do you think i'd care whether 
it runs on a VAX ? What is wrong with being system specific ?

I get the feeling you think i'm bagging people who write portable code, not 
so, i do try myself, but i also think that non ISO code is not necessarily 
bad code.It may make your life a bit harder having to convert them, but hey 
converting C to C is (IMO) one very good way of learning the language.
In any case,i consider codes posted, as mere ideas, i do not look at whether 
it is ISO or not.If i like something in it, i'll grab it and more than 
likely end up altering it to suit me anyway. 
     
 FA> half the functions in them just to be compliant ?
 PE> Maybe there's a market for a decent C library?
Hope you'll let us know when it's finished.
 
 FA> All very well to have a standard, but the standard should be standardized 
 FA> more often to follow industry changes. 
 PE> The systems I just listed above are all real, popular systems.
 PE> I'd like to see what you are proposing that works on all of
 PE> those systems.
I've seen somewhere that an estimated 75-80% of all software is PC/DOS based 
applications or games.        
I'm not proposing anything, what i'm saying is that, these days performance 
is everything, makers who do, design all those funny little non-ISO functions
for a reason.That would be either speed or reduced code size.
Although Borland have gone backwards on some...:(                
 

  L8r Frank (fadam{at}ozemail.com.au)

___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.21

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