mod.std.unix P1003 job control proposal (Brett Galloway)

[Moderator, John Quarterman]

From: pyramid!decwrl!qubix!wjvax!brett
Date: Mon, 20 Oct 86 11:03:18 pdt
Organization: Watkins-Johnson Co., San Jose, Calif.

In article <6040 at ut-sally.UUCP> Hentry Spencer writes:
>From: pyramid!utzoo!henry (Henry Spencer)
>Date: Fri, 17 Oct 86 20:18:05 CDT
>
>Apart from my overall objections to the concept of job control, there is
>one thing seriously wrong with the P1003 job control proposal as posted:
>it assumes that function names are distinct in at least the first 8
>characters, as witness "setpgrp" vs. "setpgrp2" and "getpgrp" vs. "getpgrp2".
>Note that an X3J11-conforming C implementation need distinguish only the
>first 6 characters.  I would suggest revised names for the new primitives,
>perhaps "setjpgrp" and "getjpgrp", with implementations which distinguish
>8 or more characters providing "setpgrp2" and "getpgrp2" names as well for
>maximum compatibility with existing mistakes.

Let's not force all variables to be distinct in the first 6 chars.  The
proper fix is to force a conforming C compiler to be more discriminating.
-------------
Brett Galloway
{pesnta,twg,ios,qubix,turtlevax,tymix,vecpyr,certes,isi}!wjvax!brett


Volume-Number: Volume 7, Number 85