Path: csiph.com!v102.xanadu-bbs.net!xanadu-bbs.net!feeder.erje.net!1.eu.feeder.erje.net!eternal-september.org!feeder.eternal-september.org!mx02.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Keith Thompson Newsgroups: comp.lang.c Subject: Re: Spurious diagnostic messages Date: Wed, 13 May 2015 08:24:29 -0700 Organization: None to speak of Lines: 27 Message-ID: <878ucsec0i.fsf@kst-u.example.com> References: <7be65b03-3858-4e5b-96f2-823d40368a60@googlegroups.com> <87egn6hesd.fsf@kst-u.example.com> <871tj4glau.fsf@kst-u.example.com> <873831g1pf.fsf@kst-u.example.com> <87pp65ejj1.fsf@kst-u.example.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: mx02.eternal-september.org; posting-host="9be37d943435275679235b07c7947eef"; logging-data="24023"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX18gp09cGXDYX35F4lM4zC9s" User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.3 (gnu/linux) Cancel-Lock: sha1:FMrIwmb1yQIIdlSTXEKsNqiwTFo= sha1:9SJOnEliPIwEI5fIaHLTmzYUsiI= Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.c:61940 Richard Heathfield writes: [...] > Unfortunately, EBCDIC will be with us for some time to come (decades > at least, I should imagine), so if we want our C programs to run on > big iron (and, believe it or not, some of us really really do), we're > kind of stuck with a weird char. If the next C standard were incompatible with EBCDIC (for example, requiring 'a' + 25 == 'z', or even 'a' == 97), IBM would continue to sell and use C-like compilers that use EBCDIC. They'd probably just claim conformance to an earlier edition of the standard (have they adopted C11? C99?). Or, if the new standard had other features IBM finds useful, they'd just implement them and acknowledge the non-conformance of the character set. The problem is that it would fragment the language, and encourage programmers to write "portable" C code that wouldn't work on IBM mainframes. In any case, I think IBM has enough influence on the C standard committee that this isn't going to happen any time soon. -- Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc. "We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this." -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"