Subject: Re: a new KNF (and some comments)
To: None <seebs@plethora.net>
From: Noriyuki Soda <soda@sra.co.jp>
List: tech-kern
Date: 01/21/2000 14:33:41
> >We do not require to distribute source code (user may not change
> >the binaries), and we can not force user to use ANSI style (our
> >toolchain supports K&R style), it may cause compatibility problems.
> 
> I suspect they will be very rare - and I suspect a wrapper library could
> be written; users with K&R compilers could link
> 	-lknr
> and be done.

It is not so rare, programmers who don't understand default promotion
might easily produce this kind of problems.
And because this is ABI issue, the wrapper library maitanance is too
hard to do. I think K&R style is far easy to keep ABI.

> >The simplest way to avoid this sort of problem is
> >to use K&R style (with ANSI prototypes --- current style :-),
> >in my thought.
> 
> Unfortunately, this is actually *forbidden* by the spec, and can produce
> unreliable behavior.

Which spec?
As Chris Torek wrote in Message-Id: <200001190230.TAA19047@forge.BSDI.COM>,
K&R style and ANSI prototype is no problem from ANSI/ISO-C standard POV.
--
soda