Re: on the irresponsibility of pursuing C language reform

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From: Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]>
To: Keith Bostic <[email protected]>
Cc: Sam James <[email protected]>, 
	"G. Branden Robinson" <[email protected]>, Joseph Myers <[email protected]>, [email protected], 
	Mark Harris <[email protected]>, Nevin Liber <[email protected]>, 
	JeanHeyd Meneide <[email protected]>, Christopher Bazley <[email protected]>, 
	"Serge E. Hallyn" <[email protected]>, Iker Pedrosa <[email protected]>, 
	"Evgeny Grin (Karlson2k)" <[email protected]>, Kees Cook <[email protected]>, bug-gnulib-mXXj517/[email protected], 
	libc-alpha-9JcytcrH/[email protected], Douglas McIlroy <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: on the irresponsibility of pursuing C language reform
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Hi Keith,

> Date: 2026-08-02 00:44:46+0200
> From: Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]>
>
[...]
> > Advocating for better usage in the documentation is a different thing, =
and
> > a good thing. The man pages can even go pretty hard, that=E2=80=99s the=
ir job:
> > =E2=80=9CNotice the include file is string.h. That=E2=80=99s an histori=
c accident
> > maintained for compatibility reasons; don=E2=80=99t let that fool you, =
this
> > function doesn=E2=80=99t operate on strings.=E2=80=9D
>=20
[...]
> I should probably expand the NOTES a little bit, to be more clear about
> why we ignore the standard in the SYNOPSIS.

I've put that text in a centralized place, in the memory.h(3head) manual
page:

	$ MANWIDTH=3D64 diffman-git HEAD
	--- HEAD^:man/man3head/memory.h.3
	+++ HEAD:man/man3head/memory.h.3
	@@ -10,6 +10,11 @@ SYNOPSIS
	      #include <memory.h>
	=20
	 DESCRIPTION
	+     These functions are also provided in <string.h>, as speci=E2=80=90
	+     fied by ISO C.  This is a historic accident maintained for
	+     compatibility reasons.  Don=E2=80=99t let that fool you; these
	+     functions don=E2=80=99t necessarily operate on strings.
	+
	    Write
	      bzero(3)
	      memset(3)
	@@ -38,6 +43,19 @@ DESCRIPTION
	      memrchr(3)
	      memmem(3)
	=20
	+STANDARDS
	+     BSD.
	+
	+HISTORY
	+     The <memory.h> header file is the original one which was
	+     added in System V (1983), and was later adopted by 4.3BSD
	+     (1986).  It contained the original mem* functions.
	+
	+     C89 didn=E2=80=99t standardize this header file, and instead
	+     crammed all these functions in <string.h>, resulting in
	+     confusing programmers about the real purpose of these
	+     functions.
	+
	 SEE ALSO
	      string(3), string_copying(7)
	=20

Cheers,
Alex

--=20
<https://www.alejandro-colomar.es>

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