Subject: Re: C Language Standard(s)
To: Erik Bertelsen <erik@sockdev.uni-c.dk>
From: J.T. Conklin <jconklin@netcom.com>
List: current-users
Date: 12/19/1995 08:07:23
> Is there any "official" decision about the use of ISO/ANSI standard C
> in NetBSD?
>
> Not knowing about previous discussions (possibly flame wars) of this 
> theme, I tend to recommend that new code is written according to Standard
> C and that current code should be converted to standard C when revisions 
> are done to various source files.

Hmmm?  I don't get what you're proposing.  All of the NetBSD kernel
and utilities should already be written in Standard C.  We do still
use the old function definition syntax, but that's still allowed by
the Standard.  It also makes it posible for us to port to systems
where there isn't a gcc port and the only available compiler is K&R.

> One thing that we could start doing is to move multiple external
> declarations of the same functions and variables from the .c source
> files using them to header files, to guarantee that the same
> declaration is used everywhere. When doing this I recommend using
> real prototypes instead of K&R function declarations.

This has already started.  For example, shortly before 1.1 a batch of
kernel prototypes were added.  If you're advicating that we use
prototype syntax for both function declarations and definitions, the
above reason should explain why we don't want to do that.


	--jtc