Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C

From	James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C
Date	2012-08-06 11:52 -0400
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<501FE84E.5070109@verizon.net> (permalink)
References	(12 earlier) <90326476-cbc2-49ea-b55e-9cd794727529@m13g2000vbd.googlegroups.com> <jvo90a$adh$1@dont-email.me> <a79f88a7-4525-4c0d-8113-40438c37d1c9@m13g2000vbd.googlegroups.com> <jvofv4$gta$1@dont-email.me> <bb047da2-a5c0-41e1-9189-c0dc486c3110@n13g2000vby.googlegroups.com>

Show all headers | View raw

On 08/06/2012 10:43 AM, gwowen wrote:
> On Aug 6, 2:14 pm, James Kuyper <jameskuy...@verizon.net> wrote:
> 
>> I'd be more likely to use the MapQuest app on my smartphone and show
>> them the best route. However, if I didn't have that with me, and I
>> wasn't sure of the way,
> 
> Well, no-one's suggesting that people who are unsure of the answer
> should answer.  Are you really suggesting that comp.lang.c questions
> should be restricted to questions that you personally can answer?

No, I'm suggesting that it's entirely appropriate for people who don't
know the answer to respond, despite that ignorance, for the purpose of
redirecting the questioner to a forum where it will be easier to find
people qualified to answer it.

I also believe that it's a good idea to give such a response even if the
responder does know the answer. Just because the answer is known doesn't
mean that it's a good idea to give the answer here.

Someone writing a game program set in the universe of Lois McMaster
Bujold's Vorkosigan series might want to know whether or not there's a
direct connection from Earth to Cetaganda. I know the answer to that
question, but I would not consider it a good idea to answer it here,
regardless of whether or not the program was written in C. I feel that
questions about POSIX (some of which I am qualified to answer) should be
treated the same way.

> For some posters here (not you James, admittedly) it does feel like
> that sometimes. Anyone who asks a question that cannot be answered
> with a dutifully intoned Chapter/Verse citation from the Holy Standard
> gets clubbed with "try comp.unix.programmer you non-portable heretic"

There's no one here who treats the standard as Holy, though it may
sometimes seem that way when someone is able to provide precise
"Chapter/Verse" citations. The standard was written by a committee of
fallible human beings, and many examples of that fallibility are present
in the actual standard, and I don't think you'll find many people here
who'd disagree with that statement. The closest you'll come to that is
Douglas Gwyn, and even he recognized that some mistakes were made.

I haven't seen any such clubbing applied to newbies, just reasonably
polite re-directions. Progressively less polite messages are sometimes
sent to people who should know better, but that seems entirely justified
to me (though unlikely to succeed).

Microsoft-specific questions are, if anything, even more aggressively
redirected than POSIX-specific ones.

I don't know anyone here who would advocate a complete avoidance of
non-portable code. The closest you could get was CBFalconer, but his
approach was different - he didn't advocate avoiding non-portable code,
he simply pretended to believe that code which was non-portable wouldn't
actually work, regardless of platform, no matter how ridiculous that
claim made him seem.
For many purposes, non-portable code is not merely necessary or
acceptable, but actually a good idea, and I doubt you'll find many
people on this group that would disagree with that statement, either.

I can't remember anybody being branded a heretic by anybody for writing
non-portable code.

Thread

Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Chicken McNuggets <chicken@mcnuggets.com> - 2012-07-29 16:11 +0100
  Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2012-07-29 11:18 -0400
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Chicken McNuggets <chicken@mcnuggets.com> - 2012-07-29 16:24 +0100
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "China Blue [Tor], Meersburg" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-07-29 08:34 -0700
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-07-29 12:05 -0700
        Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "China Blue [Tor], Meersburg" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-07-29 14:00 -0700
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-07-29 15:19 -0700
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-07-30 00:35 +0100
            Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-07-30 14:54 +0000
              Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Chicken McNuggets <chicken@mcnuggets.com> - 2012-07-30 17:15 +0100
              Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-07-30 12:44 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-08-02 13:51 +0000
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C jacob navia <jacob@spamsink.net> - 2012-07-30 11:13 +0200
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2012-07-30 01:59 -0700
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-07-29 17:10 +0000
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2012-07-31 14:55 -0700
        Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C jacob navia <jacob@spamsink.net> - 2012-08-01 00:24 +0200
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2012-08-02 06:12 -0700
  Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "Heinrich Wolf" <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2012-07-29 17:20 +0200
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Chicken McNuggets <chicken@mcnuggets.com> - 2012-07-29 16:24 +0100
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Ike Naar <ike@sverige.freeshell.org> - 2012-07-29 21:41 +0000
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "Heinrich Wolf" <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2012-07-30 06:46 +0200
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "Heinrich Wolf" <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2012-07-30 06:49 +0200
  Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "China Blue [Tor], Meersburg" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-07-29 08:31 -0700
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Ike Naar <ike@sverige.freeshell.org> - 2012-07-29 21:46 +0000
  Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2012-07-29 11:57 -0500
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2012-07-30 12:13 +0100
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C jacob navia <jacob@spamsink.net> - 2012-07-30 13:26 +0200
        Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2012-07-30 12:39 +0100
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Mark Bluemel <mark_bluemel@pobox.com> - 2012-07-30 13:16 +0100
            Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C BGB <cr88192@hotmail.com> - 2012-07-30 12:39 -0500
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-07-30 15:02 +0000
        Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2012-07-30 15:18 +0000
        Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Nobody <nobody@nowhere.com> - 2012-07-31 14:53 +0100
        Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2012-08-02 06:21 -0700
    Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Chicken McNuggets <chicken@mcnuggets.com> - 2012-07-30 18:10 +0100
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Paul <nospam@needed.com> - 2012-07-30 13:30 -0400
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-07-30 13:34 -0400
        Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-15 21:21 +0000
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2012-08-15 17:17 -0500
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2012-07-30 13:18 -0500
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Cal Dershowitz <cal@example.invalid> - 2012-08-01 21:08 -0600
        Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-02 12:20 +0000
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2012-08-02 06:15 -0700
            Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-02 14:16 +0000
              Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Kenneth Brody <kenbrody@spamcop.net> - 2012-08-02 11:33 -0400
              Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2012-08-02 11:51 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-02 15:03 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C tom st denis <tom@iahu.ca> - 2012-08-02 18:46 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-03 02:18 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-02 21:07 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Chicken McNuggets <chicken@mcnuggets.com> - 2012-08-04 10:40 +0100
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-04 03:22 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "Heinrich Wolf" <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2012-08-04 12:34 +0200
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-04 13:25 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Kenneth Brody <kenbrody@spamcop.net> - 2012-08-15 13:52 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-04 16:26 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2012-08-05 03:27 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gwowen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2012-08-06 01:50 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-06 07:15 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gwowen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2012-08-06 04:25 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-06 09:14 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-06 14:14 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gwowen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2012-08-06 07:43 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-06 11:52 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-06 11:37 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-06 11:34 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-06 11:53 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gwowen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2012-08-07 00:33 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-07 06:44 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gwowen <gwowen@gmail.com> - 2012-08-07 05:15 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-07 08:37 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Neil Cerutti <neilc@norwich.edu> - 2012-08-07 13:04 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-07 12:57 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-07 21:24 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2012-08-08 00:58 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-08-06 18:04 +0100
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-06 18:24 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C jgk@panix.com (Joe keane) - 2012-08-22 17:08 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-06 14:46 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-06 11:55 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-06 19:13 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-08-06 11:50 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "BartC" <bc@freeuk.com> - 2012-08-06 20:28 +0100
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-08-06 15:44 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Robert Miles <milesrf@Usenet-News.net> - 2012-09-09 22:46 -0500
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2012-09-10 04:29 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org> - 2012-09-09 22:42 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Kaz Kylheku <kaz@kylheku.com> - 2012-09-10 19:15 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C pete <pfiland@mindspring.com> - 2012-09-10 22:25 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Öö Tiib <ootiib@hot.ee> - 2012-09-10 03:10 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2012-09-10 08:01 -0400
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "io_x" <a@b.c.invalid> - 2012-08-07 10:22 +0200
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "China Blue [Tor], Meersburg" <chine.bleu@yahoo.com> - 2012-08-07 01:55 -0700
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C gazelle@shell.xmission.com (Kenny McCormack) - 2012-08-07 21:26 +0000
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-08-08 08:47 +0100
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C "Ansel" <tinker454@trytospammenowloser.com> - 2012-08-10 21:58 -0600
                Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Nick Keighley <nick_keighley_nospam@hotmail.com> - 2012-08-07 00:07 -0700
          Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Kenneth Brody <kenbrody@spamcop.net> - 2012-08-02 11:27 -0400
      Re: Wrapping existing UNIX commands in C Rui Maciel <rui.maciel@gmail.com> - 2012-08-16 09:43 +0100

csiph-web