Re: Bug#196800: flex mustn't assume stdint.h is available on allplatforms
On Thu, Jun 12, 2003 at 08:40:47PM -0500, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Jun 2003 15:22:17 -0400, Daniel Jacobowitz <dan@debian.org> said:
>
> >> You need to read up on your standards. The language called C is
> >> defined by only one authoritative standard.
> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (E) (C)ISO/IEC
> >>
> >> Contents ix
> >>
> >> 5 This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition,
> >> ISO/IEC 9899:1990, as amended and corrected by ISO/IEC
> >> 9899/COR1:1994, ISO/IEC 9899/AMD1:1995, and ISO /IEC
> >> 9899/COR2:1996.
> >>
> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Thus, I need have no such qualifiers when talking abouit conforming
> >> C implmentations.
>
> > Given the real-world deployment of probably at least a dozen major
> > OSs which were 9899:1990 conformant and predate the 9899:1999
> > standard, I'd say that's a pretty useless point of view.
>
> OOh, I am blinded by the cogency of your arguments.
>
> C99 is over 3 years old.
And still not fully implemented. Unstable only switched to a compiler
with minimal C99 support some months ago. GCC has no roadmap for
implementing the remaining C99 features so it may be years before they
are available on free operating systems.
> For ancient platforms, use flex-old.
>
> Anyway, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, and you
> can do whatever you want with your packages and your code.
I am somewhat distressed that the version of flex provided with Debian
(I am assuming from the discussion) will not be usable for
cross-platform development without constant care to use flex-old
instead. We've finally persuaded binutils and GCC to move into the era
of C90 source. I don't think we'll see C99 widely enough supported to
write portable software using it until 2008 at least.
I wouldn't call the most recent releases of a number of commercial
operating systems and compilers ancient. I don't have access to any of
them at the moment, so feel free to treat that claim as unsubstantiated
if it makes you happy.
--
Daniel Jacobowitz
MontaVista Software Debian GNU/Linux Developer
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