Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!3comvax!bridge2!auspex!guy From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: sprintf(3s) query Message-ID: <664@auspex.UUCP> Date: 9 Dec 88 17:54:04 GMT References: <1102@entropy.ms.washington.edu> <9108@smoke.BRL.MIL> Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris) Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara Lines: 10 >Actually the VAX version is wrong. sprintf() is supposed to return int. >This wasn't clearly specified in the "good old days", and since one >implementation accidentally returned the buffer address, somebody thought >that was supposed to be the definition. Err, umm, accidentally or deliberately? It wasn't specified *at all* in the V7 documentation, as I remember, but at least one piece of *System III* thought it should return the buffer address (one of the SCCS commands) - which is kind of amusing, considering the behavior had been changed by then.