To ANSI or not to ANSI (was: Re: Just a minor new twist on free())

[Henry Spencer]

In article <PDS.90Oct8101336 at lemming.webo.dg.com> pds at lemming.webo.dg.com (Paul D. Smith) writes:
>I understand that many people do not as yet have an ANSI-compliant
>compiler, but is really a valid reason for those of us who do to
>continue to eschew important enhancements to the language in order to
>continue to interoperate with the "lowest common denominator" C
>implementations?

This depends entirely on how much you care about portability.  Achieving
real portability today requires acknowledging that pre-ANSI compilers are
still in wide use and will not disappear overnight.  This situation is a
fact; wishing, e.g. arguing about whether it is "valid", will not change it.
You either live in the real world or you don't.  Refusing to live in the
real world will substantially reduce the portability of your code.
-- 
Imagine life with OS/360 the standard  | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
operating system.  Now think about X.  |  henry at zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry