Re: CVS commit: src/external/bsd/mdocml/dist

[christos%astron.com@localhost (Christos Zoulas)]

In article <20091107.004816.-432821225.imp%bsdimp.com@localhost>,
M. Warner Losh <imp%bsdimp.com@localhost> wrote:
>In message: <hd2nci$40s$1%ger.gmane.org@localhost>
>            christos%astron.com@localhost (Christos Zoulas) writes:
>: In article <20091106183619.GA2489%britannica.bec.de@localhost>,
>: Joerg Sonnenberger  <joerg%britannica.bec.de@localhost> wrote:
>: >On Fri, Nov 06, 2009 at 04:53:58PM +0000, Christos Zoulas wrote:
>: >> >- portability: warnx -> fprintf/perror
>: >> 
>: >> This change is backwards;
>: >> we should not be using perror/fprintf but warn/warnx.
>: >
>: >I disagree. They are not portable. Many platforms don't have them.
>: >Some other platforms have functions of the same name, but with different
>: >behavior (OS X).
>: 
>: It should autoconf them.
>
>which ones have the same name, but different behavior on OS X?  A quick read
>of the man pages suggests they are identical...
>
>These functions are all implemented in one file that's been trivial to
>port to Linux and Windows for me in the past...
>
>I agree with Christos here: their use is pervasive and it will be
>confusing to know when to use err and when to use perror + exit...

My point here is that we should be pushing ahead with useful features
that make the code cleaner and easier to read and maintain, not encourage
the laggard OS's not to upgrade/fix their API's by using ancient and
awkward API's such as perror().

christos