Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!ucsd!rutgers!bellcore!jcricket!sjs From: sjs@jcricket.ctt.bellcore.com (Stan Switzer) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: "Numerical Recipes in C" is nonport Message-ID: <10295@bellcore.bellcore.com> Date: 19 Sep 88 15:29:42 GMT References: <5162@hoptoad.uucp> <225800069@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <8507@smoke.ARPA> <3981@bsu-cs.UUCP> <1988Sep17.212624.8858@utzoo.uucp> Sender: news@bellcore.bellcore.com Reply-To: sjs@ctt.bellcore.com (Stan Switzer) Organization: Bellcore Lines: 36 In article <1988Sep17.212624.8858@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes: > In article <3981@bsu-cs.UUCP> dhesi@bsu-cs.UUCP (Rahul Dhesi) writes: > >>But the fact is, many C > >>implementors are not in a position to improve the linker that > >>will of necessity be used with the object code their compiler > >>generates. > > > >I think Doug Gwyn exaggerates in saying "many" and "of necessity". > > No. The world does not consist primarily of Unix systems with sources, or > of hobbyist-owned micros that can abandon standard software whenever it's > convenient to do so. Two is a couple. A few is at least three (in my book). I guess *many* will have to be at least four. Let's put this question to the test. "How many C implemenations are constrained by 6 character monocase linkers and how badly are they constrained?" In order to avoid netting too many red herring, we'll exclude machine and operating system combinations for which no C compilers exist (if there is a viable implementation in the works, we'll let it slide). Also, different designations of the same basic architecture or OS count only once. I can think of one, so I'll start: 1) GECOS / GCOS / GCOS 8 for the GE 600 / Honeywell 6000 / DPS 8 series Being essentially quantitative, the first part of this controversy is easier to resolve than the second, but as of my last experience w/ GCOS (1982), I don't feel I'd have lost very much in abandoning the standard linker in favor of a "C" linker. Stan Switzer sjs@ctt.bellcore.com