From: Steven Jenkins <steven.jenkins@...>
Date: 2003-09-20T23:37:37+09:00
Subject: Re: Trouble with binary files?

Hal Fulton wrote:
> Very, very frustrating to me when the facts don't fit my memories...
> I still think I was misinformed at some point about EOT and such.

Your batting average is still pretty good.

> I'm not sure when ANSI C came along, but I think it was *after* I
> learned C and Unix, and *after* the introduction of the IBM PC.

The standard was published in 1989. K&R second edition (1988) mentions 
the "b" modifier to fopen() (the standard was nearing ratification at 
the time), but the first edition (1978) doesn't.

I remember all this because I was trying to write code in the mid-80s to 
run on both BSD Unix and MS-DOS. Turbo C required the "b" modifier or 
some library function (binmode()?), but the (pre-gcc) Unix C compiler 
didn't allow them. I had to do it with preprocessor conditionals. Yuck.

I grumble (quietly) when other people carry on off-topic discussions, 
and now I'm doing it. We return now to ruby-talk, already in progress.

Steve