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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: standard error codes
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2017 09:27:47 -0800
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<william@wilbur.25thandClement.com> writes:
> Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> wrote:
[...]
>> It's nice for a function that returns a result to have a name
>> that relfects the meaning of that result, but it's not always
>> practical.  And in the case of strcmp, you can think of the
>> negative/zero/positive result it returns as a *comparison*, which
>> makes the name strcmp, perfectly sensible.  It's not the most
>> intuitive name, but it's more than good enough.
>
> What would be more intuitive? (Maybe you're just being polite?)

I was comparing the name strcmp to other names for other functions, not
necessarily to alternative names for strcmp itself.  For example, the
time() function has a nicely intuitive name that describes the meaning
of the value it returns.

Given what strcmp() does, the name "strcmp" is probably about as good as
anything I could think of.  (Some might complain about the terseness,
compressing "string" to "str" and "compare" to "cmp", but that's another
matter.)

[...]

-- 
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"