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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Spurious diagnostic messages
Date: Mon, 03 Aug 2015 08:22:45 -0700
Organization: None to speak of
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Ian Collins <ian-news@hotmail.com> writes:
> Keith Thompson wrote:
>> Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> writes:
>>> On Fri, 31 Jul 2015 09:01:02 -0700, Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
>>> wrote:
>> [...]
>>>> As I mentioned earlier, if binary literals are added to C, I think
>>>> support should also be added to printf and scanf, probably using
>>>> "%b".  If this happens, C++ will eventually incorporate that feature
>>>> as part of the C standard library.  I suspect that would pressure
>>>> the C++ committee to add similar support to <iostream>.
>>>
>>> I disagree.  There's little requirement to input and output binary
>>> items.  Binary literals in a program, OTOH, are quite useful in some
>>> circumstances.
>>
>> We have decimal, octal, and hexadecimal constants, input, and output.
>> Having decimal, octal, hexadecimal, and binary constants, but only
>> decimal, octal, and hexadecimal input and output would be inconsistent.
>
> But that doesn't detract from the utility of binary constants.

Agreed.  I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

>                                                                  As I 
> said elsewhere, the use case for binary constants is primarily in the 
> embedded world, stdio isn't a concern.

For freestanding implementations, stdio is not required, so adding
I/O for binary numbers to the standard would not be a burden.

For embedded systems that support something like printf, I/O for
binary numbers could be useful for debugging.

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
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"