Path: csiph.com!eternal-september.org!reader02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Tim Rentsch Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Programming exercise/challenge Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2020 10:36:54 -0800 Organization: A noiseless patient Spider Lines: 37 Message-ID: <86sg8d33uh.fsf@linuxsc.com> References: <86wnxwkyol.fsf@linuxsc.com> <86r1o1hxtn.fsf@linuxsc.com> <87lfe9jauk.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <861rfz5jgn.fsf@linuxsc.com> <87zh2ndwbe.fsf@bsb.me.uk> <868sa63x78.fsf@linuxsc.com> <87czzhbsq0.fsf@bsb.me.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Injection-Info: reader02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="e123793f93e194ce9596f9b3807e7692"; logging-data="27062"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX19/jV8SlnLf3r0T2j4Zw0NjB5NfxiaOGDQ=" User-Agent: Gnus/5.11 (Gnus v5.11) Emacs/22.4 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:yQzscxMzalOz1U6DLa9excIMvRg= sha1:OR+lmuFFndI1RBibTcFCYLDH+lU= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:157200 Ben Bacarisse writes: > Tim Rentsch writes: > >> Ben Bacarisse writes: >> >>> Tim Rentsch writes: >>> >>>> Ben Bacarisse writes: >>>> >>>>> Tim Rentsch writes: >>>>> >>>>>> Incidentally, the problem statement isn't something I just made up >>>>>> for the newsgroup, but is a simplified version of a utility >>>>>> program that is used as part of a larger toolkit. >>>>> >>>>> Which utility is that? >>>> >>>> It's one small piece of a larger C development environment that >>>> I wrote about twenty years ago. >>> >>> Ah, that explains it to some extent. I was wondering if others had >>> arrived at this exact specification. >> >> I guess it's worth noting that how the program should behave was >> chosen after the fact, not before, to provide what was needed in >> the larger context. > > It would be more interesting to note why this behaviour was needed in > the larger context. Is there some reason for holding back? The best I can tell you is that it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. I don't want to go back and try to reconstruct what motivated a decision made 20 years ago. I remember the choice but not what motivated it. It's possible it may have been nothing more than intellectual interest, but I can't say that for sure either. Sorry not to have a better answer for you.