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From: Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: encapsulating directory operations
Date: Thu, 29 May 2025 22:40:09 +0100
Organization: Fix this later
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On 29/05/2025 22:19, Scott Lurndal wrote:
> Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> writes:
>> On 29/05/2025 21:45, Keith Thompson wrote:

<snip>

>>> C99 is also exactly the same as itself.
>>
>> Yes, but it's different from C99.

No it isn't! It's different from C90. (Mea culpa; poor 
proofreading on my part.)

<snip>

>> I shudder to think how much C90 code is out there, but it has to
>> be /at least/ in the region of 10^9 LOC, much of it in the
>> military arena, medical applications, and particularly the world
>> of comms. Letting C90 compilers fall off the radar (e.g. by
>> society forgetting how to program in it) really could be a
>> stupendously bad idea, for all the reasons that people overlook
>> when they shrug and say `I expect it'll all turn out fine'.
> 
> And all the existing C compilers in the entire planet support
> the C90 dialect[*], if so instructed.

Indeed. It's hard to imagine a platform without a C90 compiler. 
That's an extraordinarily powerful quality that we would do well 
not to lose.

>   Where is the problem?

Where? I don't know. /When/ is the problem? When we forget that 
it matters.

> [*] Well, except perhap Bart's and various hobby compilers.

Er, quite.

-- 
Richard Heathfield
Email: rjh at cpax dot org dot uk
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29 July 1999
Sig line 4 vacant - apply within