> I just grab stuff off the net, and 70% of the time it works without
> any changes [...].  25% of the time I have to fix a few problems:
> they generally fall into one of two categories:
[...]
> - People have their own prototypes for system calls or library
>   variables (one common example of this is sys_errlist[]).  This is
>   just bad programming; deleting the offending prototypes solves this
>   problem.

As someone who writes such "private" declarations, I'd like to note
that it's _not_ "just bad programming".  In my case, at least, it's
simply that there is no header file I can count on to declare such
things for me, so it's either use them undeclared (which works in only
a few instances) or declare them myself.  On at least some of the
machines I work with, there is no header file at all that declares
these things.  (Or I could litter my source with conditionals, I
suppose.)

Take sys_errlist, for example.  On my NeXT at home, it's in <errno.h>,
but on the Suns at work, there is no include file (at least not under
/usr/include) that declares it.  Or take alarm(), for another example.
At home, that's in <libc.h>, which doesn't exist at work; at work, it's
in <unistd.h> or <sys/unistd.h>, neither of which exists at home.

Or does your definition of "bad programming" include declaring things
myself because I can't find an include file that declares them
everywhere I need to have the code build?

					der Mouse

			    mouse@collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu