Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utcsstat.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsstat!geoff From: geoff@utcsstat.UUCP (Geoff Collyer) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: _print/_doprnt; curses on sys III Message-ID: <1973@utcsstat.UUCP> Date: Sat, 16-Jun-84 02:09:55 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1973 Posted: Sat Jun 16 02:09:55 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 16-Jun-84 03:07:59 EDT References: <148@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP> Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada Lines: 18 Any program that calls _doprnt (or _print or whatever) directly is *broken*. The internals of a given stdio implementation are the business of no one but its author(s) and maintainer(s). If you think you need to call _doprnt or whatever, try sprintf'ing into a buffer and passing the buffer. Many people, especially those at Berkeley, seem to think that there is only one stdio implementation, Dennis Ritchie's. It ain't so, folks. I know of one stdio implementation in progress in which *all* the internal names, including names in stdio.h that aren't documented, are different or static so as to forcibly break programs that use the internal names. Some people may think that deliberately changing the names hurts portability; on the contrary, demonstrating that broken programs really are broken is a favour to their authors. The authors can fix their programs before they reach a wider audience and are a greater embarrassment than they are today.