Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: ReadKey like Function in C
Message-ID: <1989Aug13.003645.28132@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <148@trigon.UUCP> <207600029@s.cs.uiuc.edu> <941@lakesys.UUCP> <21175@cup.portal.com> <3705@buengc.BU.EDU>
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 89 00:36:45 GMT

In article <3705@buengc.BU.EDU> bph@buengc.bu.edu (Blair P. Houghton) writes:
>>Definitively, once again:
>>
>>    THERE IS NO STANDARD, O.S.-TRANSPARENT METHOD OF READING A SINGLE
>>    KEYSTROKE WITHOUT A CR.  Never has been, never will be.
>
>Never?
>
>How about if someone begs with the ANSI committee to have its
>implementation as a standard function required for compliance?

The response of a vendor who is asked to make major changes to his antique
operating system for the sake of compliance with ANSI C will be laughter.
Language standards, by and large, simply do not have that kind of clout.
ANSI committees know this.  They are in the business of recognizing, tidying,
and codifying existing practice, not trying to legislate morality.  So they
will respond the same way.

>Has it been tried?

Constantly.  People who have never participated in the standards process
have *no concept* of how many times the same old dumb ideas come up and
have to be dealt with.  I saw only a bit of the X3J11 paperwork -- I wasn't
on the committee -- but from what I did see, I can assure you that nearly
every conceivable idea was proposed at least once and usually several
times.
-- 
V7 /bin/mail source: 554 lines.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
1989 X.400 specs: 2200+ pages. | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu