Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ukma!rex!ginosko!husc6!rice!sun-spots-request From: chris@mimsy.umd.edu (Chris Torek) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun Subject: Re: Why is sprintf ifdef-ed out of? Keywords: SunOS Message-ID: <606@brazos.Rice.edu> Date: 28 Jul 89 09:46:39 GMT Sender: root@rice.edu Organization: Sun-Spots Lines: 14 Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 8, Issue 88, message 6 of 16 bob@omni.com (Bob Weissman) asks why there is an `#ifdef vax' around the `char *sprintf()' declaration in stdio.h. The reason is that sprintf() is supposed to return an int value, namely the number of characters printed, but it was `too painful' to fix this for 4.2 and 4.3 BSD, so it was left *wrong* in the BSD VAX systems and made correct in SunOS. Why the `#ifdef vax' ... `#endif' lines were never removed from the Sun stdio.h I cannot answer. Note that sprintf() has been fixed in 4.3BSD-tahoe. In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163) Domain: chris@mimsy.umd.edu Path: uunet!mimsy!chris