Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: using standard interfaces
Message-ID: <1988Sep19.213508.13314@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <485.231DAAC3@stjhmc.fidonet.org> <725@proxftl.UUCP> <7076@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <33391@cca.CCA.COM> <1988Sep17.211053.8712@utzoo.uucp> <33442@cca.CCA.COM>
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 88 21:35:08 GMT

In article <33442@cca.CCA.COM> g-rh@XAIT.Xerox.COM (Richard Harter) writes:
>... I don't need surprises like finding that my version
>of a routine breaks the system because there is a system routine with the
>same name (and nominal effect) that has side effects that the system relies
>on...

If you read the fine print in the X3J11 drafts, this is explicitly forbidden
unless the name is one of those reserved by the standard.  Yes, this will
require revisions to libraries in many implementations.  X3J11 thought it
well worth the trouble, given the increasingly severe problems with name-
space pollution in C.
-- 
NASA is into artificial        |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
stupidity.  - Jerry Pournelle  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu