[Info-vax] The (now lost) future of Alpha.

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 8/6/2018 6:27 PM, Chris wrote:
> On 08/06/18 01:02, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 8/5/2018 5:15 PM, Chris wrote:
>>> On 08/05/18 19:16, Craig A. Berry wrote:
>>>> But fopen, fwrite, fread, and fclose implemented in terms of open,
>>>> write, read, and close, which are syscalls, not C library functions. 
>>>> I'm
>>>> not sure whether a compiler would be more likely to use stdio or unix
>>>> I/O, but just wanted to point out that it might well use things that 
>>>> are
>>>> not in the C library. It doesn't matter as long as they are available,
>>>> but it might play a role in what has to get done first when 
>>>> implementing
>>>> a new compiler on a new OS port.
>>>
>>> Sorry, but that's rubbish. These functions have been part of the
>>> standard C library for decades. Check K&R or Harbison & Steele if
>>> you doubt that. Have you any idea just how rich the C library is these
>>> days ?. if you pert to new hardware or os, you just need  a slip layer
>>> between the library functions and the underlying hardware, irrespective
>>> of what hw drivers or file system is in use at lower layers..
>>
>> Maybe we should start by agreeing on what "standard" means.
>>
>> If we defined "standard" to mean ISO/IEC 9899:1999 or ISO/IEC 9899:2011,
>> then I don't believe open/write/read/close are there.
>>
>> At least I can not find them in C11 chapter 7 or appendix B.
>>
>> I have never experienced a C environment that did not have them,
>> but that is different from being standard.
>>
>> They may qualify as "de facto standard".
> 
> Perhaps it did originally develop in an ad hoc fashion, but have the
> 1988 edition of K&R in front of me and that has a whole appendix on
> the standard C library, as does the first edition from 1979. If there
> is a standard, then that book and the one from Harbison & Steele, "C,
> a Reference Manual", are the primary definitions of it historically,
> though i'm sure there will have been many changes since.

Not really.

K&R was the standard 1978 to 1989.

But since ANSI X3.159-1989 was published in 1989 then the ANSI/ISO
standards has been the C standard.

Arne