ANSI C

[George Robbins]

In article <1340 at cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> jon at cit-vax.UUCP (Jon Leech) writes:
>
>	I would be interested in hearing answers to these questions from
>people who have experience with other standardized languages (eg F77):
>
>	i) How long after the standard is put out does it take for
>		compilers to come out which support it?

In the micro world, some compilers are already supporting many of the
ANSI C features.  Standards that effectively say 'these parts of the IBM
Fortran Compiler are Standard' are obviously pretty quick acting.  Others,
like the Codasyl (?) COBOL group that work on future COBOL standards take
years even to be felt.

It should also be pointed out that despite all the fuss and bother, some well
intentioned standards never really catch on in the real world.

>	ii) How long does it take for essentially ALL compilers to support
>		it; i.e., is it reasonable to expect to write a truly
>		portable program in ANSI C before 1990 or some such?

A long, long time.  It's not obvious how long it will take AT&T and Berkeley
to adopt the new ANSI features, especially those that might break existing
code (non-portable code in unix is more common than you might think).  It can
take a lot longer for the computer system vendors and other third parties that
start with AT&T or BSD to get the stuff out to their customers.

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,	uucp: {ihnp4|seismo|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing	arpa: cbmvax!grr at seismo.css.GOV
Commodore, Engineering Department	fone: 215-431-9255 (only by moonlite)