Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!tgr!gwyn@Brl-Vld.ARPA From: Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB)Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: 4.2::SYSV compatability problem Message-ID: <8185@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Sun, 10-Feb-85 15:42:55 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.8185 Posted: Sun Feb 10 15:42:55 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 13-Feb-85 02:18:39 EST Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 11 But the idea of making extern objects conform to a DEF/REF model is a good one (forced upon the C implementor on a wide variety of systems); it's just changing the semantics on UNIX that was not such a hot idea. (Although K&R described DEF/REF semantics, few UNIX programmers paid heed, since UNIX used a COMMON model.) The draft ANSI C spec requires DEF/REF, but in a small note in an Appendix the COMMON model is mentioned as a "common extension". C programmers should start conforming to DEF/REF semantics if they are not already doing so; this works on UNIX and will continue to work on other C systems (including perhaps future UNIXes).