HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: Only C gurus allowed?!?!
Organization: Texas Instruments Inc
Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1992 16:03:40 GMT

In <1992Sep10.015816.26718@nuscc.nus.sg> eletanjm@nuscc.nus.sg (TAN JIN MENG) writes:

>mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539) writes:
>: In <1992Sep9.051107.22938@nuscc.nus.sg> eletanjm@nuscc.nus.sg (TAN JIN MENG) writes:
>: 
>: >I posted something in this group to try to help someone out. 
>: 
>: >I got flaming mail to the effect that I was wrong, that my explanation
>: >was garbage etc etc and that I shouldn't post in this group (to help
>: >others) unless I'm very sure of the facts.
>: 
>: >Is there some kind of implicit censorship here? To the effect that only
>: >C gurus are allowed to help others here?
>: 
>: No censorship that I know of, but if you were wrong, were you really
>: "helping others"?

>My examples were CORRECT. 

>The whole purpose of the usenet is free and unrestricted flow of info.

That's right.  You flowed out and other people flowed back.  Why is
this a problem for you?  You were free and unrestricted, and other
people were free and unrestricted back.

>Assume that I am wrong - though when I posted I believed I was right.
>Then I should be treated like the newbie right?  - that's embarrisment
>enough for me. Then Someone who knows better just correct me. 

Think about it like this.  Imagine the busier newsgroups (like
comp.lang.c) as being huge amphitheaters with excellent acoustics.
Now, every time someone in that amphitheater talks, everyone hears
him.  The more people you put in that amphitheater, the more important
it is that all of them exercise some amount of restraint in posting
things that are not clear or that they are not sure of.  Otherwise,
the noise from everyone talking rapidly overwhelms any useful
information that may be out there.

This is why, in the larger groups, you will find people much quicker
to tell someone off who isn't explaining something clearly (and much
quicker to get on someone's case for misdirected postings).  It is
simply that without efforts to try to minimize the noise level, the
usefulness of the group TO EVERYONE is decreased.  This is what is
behind the creation of some of the 'wizard' groups, but that is a
solution that doesn't work particulalry well unless either the group
is moderated or 'non-wizards' are promptly and profusely flamed.

>I don't know - maybe I'm just too used to polite society ;-). 

Manners change by location.  Here, it is considered bad manners to
answer a question incorrectly or in a muddy or unclear fashion.

-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
From: beers@acsu.buffalo.edu (Andrew Beers)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: SUMMARY:  Database libs
Date: 14 Sep 92 15:43:03 GMT
Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo/Comp Sci

g0pereir@cdf.toronto.edu writes:
>Try searching Simtel20 (and mirror) site(s).  Look either under C or
>DATABASE directories ...

Checked SIMTEL 20, and found cbase102.zip.  A reasonably complete shareware
package with a shareware cost of about $80.

levin@world.std.com writes:
>of course there's a zillion commercial ones.  I used and
>liked c-index by a company called trio, available on many
>platforms.  The company that advertises on the back of 
>every dr. dobs journal has been well-reviewed.

I was originally looking for shareware/freeware ones, but thought that the
net.crowd would be interested.

>But I did find what looks to be a gnu database manager, call gdbm.
>It appears to me to be a collection of low level functions which
>create databases, add records, etc.

This is the GNU cousin of the dbm and ndbm database managers under UNIX.  Only
one problem:  single-key, simple hashing (so only one record per key).  You
can get this from prep.ai.mit.edu.

draper@ais.org writes:
>My vote for best database library goes to Borland's Paradox Engine. It might
>not be as full featured as others, but the record locking and sharing are
>handled automatically and *transparently* to the programmer. The
>documentation is slim, but very complete.
>The worst one that I've used recently is Faircom's C-tree. It took me about
>9 months to learn all the in's and out's of this arcane work. It's very
>reliable, and very advanced, but the manuals are total garbage. If you buy
>this one, throw them away before you open the diskettes. Then, rely on the
>customer support 800 number. They will be a lot more help than the manuals
>will be.

paul@hal.com writes:
>Check out Metalbase in volume 28 of the comp.sources.misc archives.  Also
>look in the public BSD sources, as there is an early version of Ingress
>there.  You might also look at Requiem, from Australia, which should be
>available via anonymous ftp from anucsd.anu.edu.au .

I have not had a chance yet to do this, but they are three nice leads!

shirleyk@qualix.com writes:
>The Qualix Group has a C++ library that provides a portable interface
>to various databases.

She included a readme with this, but it is rather large.  Email me if you'd
like me to forward it to you.  This software is *not* cheap, but seems very
complete.  Probably more suitable in a commercial or corporate environment.


Hope this helped you all!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andrew C. Beers, N2LUH             beers@cs.buffalo.edu  
SUNY Buffalo, Computer Science     {rutgers,uunet}!cs.buffalo.edu!beers
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.c++,comp.os.msdos.apps,comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: adam@microware.com (Adam Goldberg)
Subject: Re: Should I buy BC++ 3.1??
Organization: Microware Systems Corp., Des Moines, Iowa
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 13:01:46 GMT

grant@pentagon-gw.army.mil (Pete Grant) writes:

>In article <1992Sep3.174207.21362@ra.msstate.edu> cee1@ra.msstate.edu (Charles Evans) writes:
>>Well, info from customer-support@borland.com says the educational price
>>for BC 3.1 is $139.99. However, I was cruisin' thru the university bookstore/
>>computer place and they have it for $99.00. Ok.
>>
>Probably a case of Apples vs. Oranges.  If either of those packages includes
>the Application Frameworks, buy it now!  I paid $200 for mine as an upgrade.

When I bought BC++3.0 the educational price was $99 for BC++3.0 or $199 for
BC++3.0/AF.  I can't imagine it went up more than a few ($30?) dollars since 
then.  Still a great price, suggested retail is like $500 & $750.

>>(I think) DOS 7.0 will be a COMPLETE rewrite redo everything. Should I wait?
>>
>My suggestion:  Forget DOS.  GUI-based operating systems are the future
>in this business.  As soon as Windows NT and OS/2 are established, only
>a few die-hards will still be running DOS.  Let the people with old
>8088's have it.

>If you are planning on a career in software engineering (programming),
>you MUST learn to program Windows or another GUI.  Five years from now
>*NOBODY* is going to hire people to develop character-based user interface
>applications.

Aw, c'mon.  That's simply not true.  There will ALWAYS be a market for
real-time programming.  Why would a digital telephone switch or a robot
controller need a GUI?  In fact, they definately do NOT need one, since
they tend to slow things down tremendously.

Actually, I'd say that they market for real-time dedicated-controller-type
programming will increase as hardware gets cheaper and faster therefore
making larger and more comprehensive real-time applications possible.

On the other hand, I agree that anything on a desktop that isn't a 3270
connected to big iron is probably going to be GUI soon.

-- 
Adam G.
adamg@microware.com, or ...!uunet!mcrware!adamg
The above is not to be construed in any way as the official or unofficial
statements of Microware, or any Microware employees.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,sci.math.num-analysis
From: edwarde@htsa.aha.nl (Edward van Egmond)
Subject: Re: There is an article on C numerical extensions in Dr. Dobbs Jnl
Organization: Algemene Hogeschool Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 11:44:02 GMT

In article <12205@cis.rand.org> ajayshah@cis.rand.org writes:
>It is a "NCEG status report" by Robert Jarvis, in the August 1992
>issue of Dr. Dobbs Jnl.
>
>        -ans.

Yes, I've read it but it mainly concerns the japanese/chinese graphic language.

	Eddie.

-- 
Roses are red, violets are blue,
I'm a schizofrenic and so am I.
Edward van Egmond UUCP: ...!solist.htsa.aha.nl!edwarde
From: y2t@ecl.psu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: How is NaN recognized?
Date: 8 Sep 92 23:15:34 EDT
Organization: Engineering Computer Lab, Pennsylvania State University

A while ago, Gilles_Kohl@spam.fido.de (Gilles Kohl) writes:

>  > From: jos@and.nl (Jos Horsmeier)
>  > In article <5569@ucsbcsl.ucsb.edu> 6500mack@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Michael P.
>  > Mack) writes:
>  > |I am using scanf() to read in a float that is entered by the user.  If
>  > |an invalid string is typed such as "-" or "." then the variable is
>  > |assigned -0.NaN(DFD5480000000000... or -0.NaN(DFD9400000000000000...
>  > |
>  > |How do I detect when the float is a NaN so that I can set it to 0.0?
> 
>  > Don't use scanf() for this, use a combination of fgets(), to read a line
>  > and atof() to convert the input string to a double value. atof() returns
>  > 0.0 if the string could not be converted to a double value and it
>  > sets (I'm not sure if all implementations do this) the errno variable
>  > to ERANGE in case of overflow.
> 
> Jos,
> 
> another alternative (beside your suggested use of a finite automaton)
> might be the strtod function from the ANSI standard lib:
> 
> double strtod(const char *s, char **enpd)
> 
> strtod returns HUGE_VAL in case of overflow, 0 in case of underflow - in both 
> cases the standard requires errno to be set to ERANGE. What's really nice about 
> strtod is that it sets the char * pointed to by enpd to where it stopped 
> converting - makes error detection easier.
> 
> Regards,
> Gilles.
> 
> ---


    What about reading floating point values from a binary file? 
Look at the following codes:

/**   Suppose 'filename' is a file which was already created  **/
/**   using creat(), and was written using write().           **/

      int    fp;
      float  x;
      fp = open(filename, O_RONLY);
      read(fp, &x, sizeof(float));

    Is there a way to detect if x is a NaN?

-Tang
From: eric@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu (Eric Hansen)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: How to call procedure with a variable?!
Summary: How do I call a procedure using a variable?
Keywords: C VARIABLE PROCEDURE
Date: 10 Sep 92 14:37:05 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester - Rochester, New York

I'd like to be able to call a procedure based on the contents of a variable.
For instance, if my variable  GOTOPROC is equal to "GetNewSearch(X,Y,Z)", then
I'd like to somehow say GOTOPROC and have it perform the GetNewSearch
routine.  In the C Shell under Unix, you could use 'eval' to do this kind
of thing, but how would I do this in C?  Specifically, this is for MicroSoft C
under DOS.

In the past (in different languages), I've always had to use
a 'case' or 'switch' type statement to say something like:

case GOTOPROC of
	'GetNewSearch(X,Y,Z)' : GetNewSearch(X,Y,Z);
	..
	..

This seems pretty redundant, and there must be a more elegant way to 
accomplish this!

Help!  Thanks in advance,

Eric Hansen

eric@prodigal.psych.rochester.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.lang.pascal,comp.lang.misc
From: phfrom@nyx.uni-konstanz.de (Hartmut Frommert)
Subject: Re: Opinions on case sensitivity in programming languages?
Organization: Dept. of Physics, University of Constance
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 09:31:42 GMT

tswingle@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu (Tom Swingle) writes:
..
>1.  Do you prefer programming in a language which is case-sensitive or case-
>insensitive (or does it even make a difference to you), and why?

Depends on what I want to do: For a typesetting language (i.e. (Ams)(La)TeX)
it seems natural to be case sensitive (as TeX is) because the text to typeset
is case sensitive anyway. For programming, I would slightly prefer case 
insensitive languages so that you may use Capitals for making names easier to
read/understand (TResourceCollection.CopyFrom, ...) but use as you want when 
fasttyping a test program.

>2.  How significant an issue is case-sensitivity in your preference toward one
>language over another?

Not very.

>3.  Since this article is posted to the C and Pascal newsgroups, here is a
>question for the respective users of each language:  To the C programmers, do
>you feel that you would like C better if it were case-insensitive; and to the
>Pascal programmers, do you feel that you would like it better with case
>sensitivity?  [..]

I (pascal user) like it more as it is but could also live with it anyway.

>4.  If you were designing a language, would you make it case-sensitive, case-
>insensitive, or maybe even allow for an option to go either way.  [..]

As stated above, I would make a typesetting language case sensitive, a
general programming language (like C, Pascal, or Mathematica) case 
insensitive. BTW I can live with and use Mma. being case sensitive.
--
 Hartmut Frommert, Physics, Univ of Constance, | + Whale killing is murder. +
 P.O.Box 55 60, D-W-7750 Konstanz, Germany | + Eat whale killers, not whales.
 E-Mail: <phfrom@nyx.uni-konstanz.de>
+    "Windows NoT" expands in German to "Windows Noch Teurer"
+                                                ^even   ^more expensive
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
From: eletanjm@nuscc.nus.sg (TAN JIN MENG)
Subject: Re: Help!!! Please Read this message!?!?!?!?!...
Organization: National University of Singapore
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 04:33:45 GMT

mcook@melkur.dev.cdx.mot.com (Michael Cook) writes:
: eletanjm@nuscc.nus.sg (TAN JIN MENG) writes:
: 
: >gmr6139@ultb.isc.rit.edu (G.M. Richard ) writes:
: >: I can't get my compiler to do float-type variables.
: 
: ...
: 
: >: #define apples  4
: >: #define oranges 3.6
: >:  
: >: main()
: >: {
: >:         printf("\nApples = %d\nOranges = %f", apples, oranges);
: >: }
: 
: >Your compiler can't know what orange is... So it assumes that its an
: >int. That's why the wrong result. Alternatives ...
: 
: What?  Don't be silly...  The compiler knows what orange is.
: 
: Matt's problem is probably due to Turbo C trying to avoid linking against the
: floating point library (so as to keep the program smaller).  The compiler saw
: no "float" or "double" declarations, and so it linked against the non-floating
: point version of the standard library, and picked-up the non-floating point
: version of printf, which probably doesn't understand %f.


If the printf doesn't understand %f, it will print "%f" verbatim and not
even attempt to interpret it.

jin meng
From: karl@ima.isc.com (Karl Heuer)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Warning
Date: 11 Sep 92 01:03:40 GMT
Organization: Interactive Systems, Cambridge, MA 02138-5302

In article <14443@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) writes:
>The real point of my warning stands:  there are C programmers who have
>been in the habit of _systematically avoiding_ 'extern'.  With older UNIX
>compilers and linkers they could get away with it.  That practice won't
>survive much longer, and the time to fix it is now.

It's not an ANSI thing, either.  Even on Unix, some compilers have used
Ref-Def.  I stopped assuming the Common-Block model shortly after the first
time I tried to port a multi-file program, sometime around 1979.

Karl W. Z. Heuer (karl@ima.isc.com or uunet!ima!karl), The Walking Lint
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
From: lisa@us-es.sel.de (Lisa Goulet)
Subject: Re: Print #define
Organization: SEL-Alcatel LTS Dept. US/ES
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 15:27:15 GMT


-- 


In K&R C, is there a way to print a preprocessor variable?

e.g.  With the following define 

        #define Architecture hp300

      to be able to print the "hp300" part.



Thanks,

.. Lisa ..
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
From: eletanjm@nuscc.nus.sg (TAN JIN MENG)
Subject: Re: Only C gurus allowed?!?!
Organization: National University of Singapore
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 16:48:22 GMT

This is my last word on this topic. And please stop all that email
(thanks to all the encouraging ones) - I can't handle it.

First, its not really about whether anyone is wrong or right about
anything at all - I admit my article was confusing - but so what anyone
- even the experts can have an off color day.

Second my grief (beef? - americana anyone?) is with people exhibiting
teenage like behaviour in thi group. I repeat again - I do not get thiss
in other groups! Somehow I doubt it will change anytime soon but I can
hope.

Oh yah I almost forgot... A number of people have pointed out that I
deserve it because I waste bandwidth! huh? Have you seen some of the
articles/threads in this and every other news group?! Let's have some
give and take man!

jin meng
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
From: gmr6139@ultb.isc.rit.edu (G.M. Richard )
Subject: Float Variables (was Re: Help!!!...)   
Originator: gmr6139@ultb
Organization: Rochester Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 13:46:04 GMT

In article <fdhC028W20DL01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> tpa10@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Thomas P. Anderson) writes:
>In article <1992Sep8.002536.18118@ultb.isc.rit.edu> gmr6139@ultb.isc.rit.edu (G.M. Richard ) writes:
>>I can't get my compiler to do float-type variables.  I can do 
>>... (some deleted) ...  this program with Turbo C, all I get
>>is zeroes for floats.  Take a look:
>> 
>>/*  Variable Example */
>>#include <stdio.h>
>>#define apples  4
>>#define oranges 3.6
>>main()
>>{
>>        printf("\nApples = %d\nOranges = %f", apples, oranges);
>>}
>>output:
>>Apples=4
>>Oranges=0.000000           
>> ... (more deleted)
>I'm suprised you didn't get any warnings from TC.  Try "#include"ing
>float.h.  Also, did you install the floating point libraries, and/or
>does your link command include them?  Just for grins add lines to
>declare a float variable and try and do some math on it, I bet the
>linker chokes on you.
>
>Tom A.

Thanks for all the responses, mostly through private mail, but I tried
all the suggestions and none of them worked.  I'm not getting any error
messages, and I have tried using regular floats and math, every which
way possible, without writing a book.  I believe I am using an old
version (it.s Turbo C, not Turbo C++) but it's all I can fit on my
computer ('286 w/ 640 k).  I'm thinking about actually buying a
compiler, but when I get a -real- computer, I hope to use Borland C++.
$80 seems like a waste if I won't use it after one year...

Forever Baffled,


-- 
  _  _                __                         gmr6139@ultb.isc.rit.edu
 /| /|  __  _/__/_   /__) ' __  /_  __ ,_  __/  gmr6139@george.cs.rit.edu
/ |/ |_/-/__/__/____/ \__/_/___/ /_/-/_/__/_/  gmr6139@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
____________________________________________  gmr6139@ritlav.isc.rit.edu
From: ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Warning
Date: 10 Sep 92 05:08:37 GMT
Organization: Comp Sci, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia

Chris Volpe has pointed out, and others have pointed out by E-mail,
and Plauger&Brodie explained when I re-read it with a bit more care,
that "tentative definitions" apply _only_ within a single translation
unit, so the C compiler on the SGI Iris machine that I was using was
absolutely right.  I hadn't thought about this much before because my
personal style is to put 'extern' everywhere that it makes sense, and
to ensure that 'extern' appears only in header files.  This program
(not _my_ code, no way) hadn't run into trouble before because it only
runs under UNIX and even the ANSI(ish) compilers it had been tried with
still supported the UNIX 'common' model as a default.

I think it is worth noting that this compiler, by sticking close to the
ANSI standard and being picky about it, found a number of real errors
that had gone undetected for a long time.

The real point of my warning stands:  there are C programmers who have
been in the habit of _systematically avoiding_ 'extern'.  With older UNIX
compilers and linkers they could get away with it.  That practice won't
survive much longer, and the time to fix it is now.

-- 
You can lie with statistics ... but not to a statistician.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
From: ghall%sunserver@relay.nswc.navy.mil (Gary Hall (CSC))
Subject: incremental linking of C object files 
Organization: Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren, VA
Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1992 02:12:04 GMT


I am not sure if this is the appropriate group to post this question
to or not but here goes.  Does anyone out there know if there is
a way to incrementally link C object files without the use of
commercial products such as Saber-C, SMARTSystem, etc.  We are
currently using SUNOS 4.1.1 Rev B with the Sun C compiler.  Any
help or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
From: eletanjm@nuscc.nus.sg (TAN JIN MENG)
Subject: Re: Help!!!  Please Read this message!?!?!?!?!...
Organization: National University of Singapore
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 10:54:16 GMT

gmr6139@ultb.isc.rit.edu (G.M. Richard ) writes:
: I can't get my compiler to do float-type variables.  I can do 
: integers, and I can declare integers, but I can't either 
: declare a real number or define a float variable.  This is no 
: little typo here - the same programs work when compiled on a 
: VAX, but when I compile this program with Turbo C, all I get 
: is zeroes for floats.  Take a look:
:  
: /*  Variable Example */
:  
: #include <stdio.h>
:  
: #define apples  4
: #define oranges 3.6
:  
: main()
: {
:         printf("\nApples = %d\nOranges = %f", apples, oranges);
: }
:  
:  
: output:
:  
: Apples=4
: Oranges=0.000000           

Your compiler can't know what orange is... So it assumes that its an
int. That's why the wrong result. Alternatives ...

1) printf("\nApples = %d\nOranges = %f",(int)apples, (float)oranges);

2) declare 
const float oranges = 3.6;

:  
:  
: Any help on this problem would be greatly appreciated!!!!
:  
: 
: -- 
:   _  _                __                         gmr6139@ultb.isc.rit.edu
:  /| /|  __  _/__/_   /__) ' __  /_  __ ,_  __/  gmr6139@george.cs.rit.edu
: / |/ |_/-/__/__/____/ \__/_/___/ /_/-/_/__/_/  gmr6139@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
: ____________________________________________  gmr6139@ritlav.isc.rit.edu

jin meng
From: jdmst11@pitt.edu (John D Morris)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Looking for source code for runtime library
Date: 5 Sep 92 15:32:43 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of Pittsburgh
Originator: jdmst11@unix.cis.pitt.edu

I am looking for the source code for printf and scanf.  If anyone has the
C source for them, could you let me know where to find it?  (FTP, or
whatever)
					Please E-Mail
					jdmst11@unix.cis.pitt.edu W