Date   : Sat, 24 Sep 1988 17:30:27 GMT
From   : vsi!friedl@uunet.uu.net (Stephen J. Friedl)
Subject: Z-80 Unix?

In article <427@ucrmath.UUCP>, jantypas@ucrmath.UUCP (John Antypas) writes:
> >
> >Whitesmiths may have done IDRIS for the Z80.
> 
> Indeed they did, but I wouldn't exactly call it Unix.  Our labs use Idris
> because we must, and the C alone is semi-Unix-like if you look at it
> just the right way.  They rewrote literally 90% of the libraries.  Truly
> non-portable code!

In the early days, Whitesmiths felt they were In Charge of C
programming.  Above, `rewrote 90% of the libraries' means that
the usage and function names were different as well.  For example:

               putfmt("The number is %i\n", i);

replaced your good old printf.  After a time, they released a
compatible library, but it was likely due to outrage.  I have
never in the meantime seen such a blatant example of gratuitous
incompatibility.  What is surprising is that this came from 
the man who cowrite _Elements of Programming Style_, P.J.
Plauger.  Sad.

My memory is a bit dated on the details, corrections welcome.

     Steve

-- 
Steve Friedl    V-Systems, Inc.  +1 714 545 6442    3B2-kind-of-guy
friedl@vsi.com     {backbones}!vsi.com!friedl    attmail!vsi!friedl


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