From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon May 5 23:03:58 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id XAA18282 for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 5 May 1997 23:03:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from isbalham.ist.co.uk (isbalham.ist.co.uk [192.31.26.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id XAA18277 for ; Mon, 5 May 1997 23:03:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: from gid.co.uk (uucp@localhost) by isbalham.ist.co.uk (8.8.4/8.8.4) with UUCP id GAA16249; Tue, 6 May 1997 06:43:58 +0100 (BST) Received: from [194.32.164.2] by seagoon.gid.co.uk; Tue, 6 May 1997 06:44:32 +0100 X-Sender: rb@194.32.164.1 Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <199705060310.NAA25324@godzilla.zeta.org.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 06:41:49 +0100 To: Bruce Evans From: Bob Bishop Subject: Re: /usr/include/ftpio.h is not C++ safe Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, jkh@time.cdrom.com, nadav@barcode.co.il, gclarkii@main.gbdata.com Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk At 4:10 +0100 6/5/97, Bruce Evans wrote: >>What is our reason for having old code around? Is there a GOOD reason >>why we are trying to support a non-ansi compiler? What is the chance that >>FreeBSD will ever need to do this in real life? > >To support users who have old code. FreeBSD doesn't support ANSI compilers, >only gcc (try compiling with lcc) :-). I have *shitloads* of old code around (mostly in clients' systems) which breaks in subtle and mysterious ways when naively ported to ANSI C. It often boils down to ANSI having broken the portability of comparing chars with constants [don't get me started, it's a couple of years since I had a good rant about that one :-)]. -traditional is a life-saver. -- Bob Bishop (0118) 977 4017 international code +44 118 rb@gid.co.uk fax (0118) 989 4254 between 0800 and 1800 UK