Re: On C99, C11, and other dialects

Am 20.04.26 um 18:15 schrieb Steffen Nurpmeso:
> Hello Alejandro.
>
> Alejandro Colomar via Mutt-dev wrote in
>   <aeP4WD47Pch3b5UT@devuan>:
>   |On 2026-04-18T02:10:17+0200, Steffen Nurpmeso wrote:
>   |[...]
>   |> I never used the standard library until i took maintainership of
>   |> that MUA, really.  (fprintf(3), but only as the last possibility
>   |> in case of debug havoc.)  We had (or could) -nostdlib (on Linux;
>   |> but needed -ldl), dtors, ctors, (ifuncs), this all not used
>   |> (-fno-rtti and all that), so it was wonderful.
>   |
>   |Hmmm, then yes, that would count as C89.  It's quite rare, as these days
>   |almost every program uses POSIX or C99 library stuff, such as
>   |snprintf(3).
>
> Libraries seem to have detoriated thus, in that, i think compiling
> on a twenty year old system will currently really fail, also
> because of snprintf for example.  (Originally there was a "lazy
> wrapper" which simply called vsprintf().)
> But it is on the list and not forgotten.

I would advise not to waste time and brain cycles for open source on 
getting network-related code -- or generally code that needs to support 
inputs you don't control -- to run on 20-year-old systems with 
insufficient library support that make you write 20 lines of situation 
and error checking for a job you get done with three in a modern variant 
of your programming language and one in another. We've seen mutt 
maintainers come and go over the years.

> That standard format I/O, for example, i never liked, i will
> port the "format codec", one day.  (Just a(n) (restartable)
> object that does it, being fed from the front instead of
> calling pointer-to-function from the back, as some I/O libraries
> implemented the *f() series, at one time, at least.  With it,
> non-restartable (eg stack buffer) is then simply
>
>          Txt::FormatDecoder      fd;
>          ...
>          if(_cplen == M1::ui4)
>                  _cplen = length(_cp);
>          (void)fd.setup(_cp, _cplen, _fmt, _valistp)
>                  .setRestartable(fal0)
>                  .call();
>          _cplen = ((fd.isFinished() || 0 != fd.numberOfConversions())
>                          ? fd.numberOfAssignments()
>                          : M1::ui4);
>          return _cplen;
>
> which is so much better than anything else thinkable.)

Wasting time on solved problems seems to be a hobby project in itself, 
but not useful if you don't have it now but want your application (such 
as mutt) written and progress.