From: John_Spadafora/Papyrus DOT PAPYRUS AT papy DOT com
Subject: Re: ASCII and BINARY files. Why?
3 Feb 1997 08:00:33 -0800
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Jim Balter and Alex Stewart,

Thanks for the great exchanges you guys have been making.  They have
been the most informed exchanges in this discussion and also, the most
entertaining.

It seems to me that Jim has successfully argued that GNU conforms to
POSIX and that POSIX (and GNU) both conform to ANSI C, but I think
Alex has made a very good point.

The GNU authors should be sensitive to the fact that the GNU programs
have been (and will be) ported to many NON-POSIX systems.

Why not open files with the "b" flag when expecting binary operation even
though, on POSIX systems, there is no distinction?

Adding the "b" flag does not harm POSIX or ANSI C compliance in any way,
yet allows for easier porting of GNU programs to NON-POSIX systems.
While this change is NOT a bug fix, per say, it is a beneficial modification.

I'm surprised, Jim, to hear that you feel the GNU authors would oppose this
kind of modification.

--John


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