Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rpi!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Weird problem with C compiler under SCO - I can't believe it!
Message-ID: <597@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 28 Sep 89 14:48:26 GMT
References: <71@promark.UUCP> <14561@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <940@bbx.UUCP> <11157@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Distribution: na
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center
Lines: 31

In article <11157@smoke.BRL.MIL>, gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes:
|  In article <534@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
|  >Another thing which was left out of the ANSI standard is some name space
|  >reserved to the user.
|  
|  As you state it, it's simply not true.  ALL identifiers not specifically
|  flagged as "reserved" (for the implementation) by the Standard are
|  reserved for the (application) program's use.  We staked out whole
|  categories of name space such as is*() for use in future C standards.

  I see this as the diference between "you can use anything we haven't
taken" and "we will never take this." What is not in the standard is any
statement like "no future standard library calls will have external
names which begin with three alphabetic characters and an underscore. In
other words, I was not given a set of names which I can call my own and
be assurred will not conflict in the future.

|  The other problem you mention, of vendor-supplied libraries clashing
|  with application (or other libraries) use of identifiers, is a real one.

  On my schedule of things to look at next year is a program which will
take an object file and rename global symbols. I know this will break
the documentation of the vendor library, but I feel the benefits are
worth it. Obviously I would have to rename the references, too.
Naturally if I write such a thing I will post it.

-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
"The world is filled with fools. They blindly follow their so-called
'reason' in the face of the church and common sense. Any fool can see
that the world is flat!" - anon