Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: portability and standards Message-ID: <6095@brl-smoke.ARPA> Date: Thu, 9-Jul-87 21:24:55 EDT Article-I.D.: brl-smok.6095 Posted: Thu Jul 9 21:24:55 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 07:17:02 EDT References: <2290@calmasd.GE.COM> <4715@columbia.UUCP> <107@snark.UUCP> <1103@killer.UUCP> Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB)) Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD. Lines: 18 In article <1103@killer.UUCP> jfh@killer.UUCP (John Haugh) writes: >What do you do with a simple status variable like errno that is >modified by all of the system calls? A botch. Consider what happens in multi-threaded applications, such a signal handler that has to do system calls. Of course there are ways around this misfeature, but they shouldn't have been necessary. Don't knock ADT or other structured software design methodologies until you've learned to use them. A lot of very smart people have worked very hard over the past few decades to figure out how to turn software construction into a solid engineering discipline rather than a guild craft. Much real progress has been made in understanding the fundamental issues and in developing suitable methodology, although as usual many practitioners remain ignorant of theoretical developments (especially in the UNIX community, which has more than its fair share of random hackers).