From: "A. Sinan Unur" <sinan DOT unur AT cornell DOT edu>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: Automatically seeding random numbers
Date: Thu, 05 Feb 1998 07:54:50 -0500
Organization: Cornell University (http://www.cornell.edu/)
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S. M. Halloran wrote:

>      DIAGNOSTICS
>           Upon successful completion, time returns the value of  time.
>           Otherwise,  a  value  of (time_t)-1 is returned and errno is
>           set to indicate the error.

you realize, of course, that time_t does not have to be a scalar type,
and programs that rely on this assumption will break if the type
changes.

i find the current description useful in that it gives you only the
information that you can safely rely on. and leads you to check the
standards to see exactly you can rely on. the version you proposed makes
without any warnings, a lot of extra statements about validity of
certain assumptions that are not guaranteed.

  -- Sinan