Re: on the irresponsibility of pursuing C language reform (was: [PATCH 1/2] man/man3/{mem,strn}*(): SYNOPSIS, STANDARDS: Document these as provided by <memory.h>)

Alejandro Colomar <[email protected]> Sat, 1 Aug 2026 00:21:34 +0200

Newsgroups	org.kernel.vger.linux-man
Message-ID	<am0fnb4BMRrTajqx@devuan>

Hi Joseph,

> Date: 2026-07-31 22:10:13+0000
> From: Joseph Myers <[email protected]>
>
> On Fri, 31 Jul 2026, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> 
> > More to the point: what's a better forum for pursuing this attempt at
> > reform that will both (a) reach a significant population of stakeholders
> > who can variously red-team it and/or endorse it; and (b) has sufficient
> > visibility that it can't easily be ignored by people who oppose reform
> > in this area for whatever reason?
> 
> man-pages should document the world of C APIs as it is, in a way that has 
> broad community agreement; it should follow, not lead, on any changes.
> 
> When an API has been in <string.h> since 1989, that means documenting 
> <string.h> as the main location for that API - not some other location one 
> person thinks is better and that most of the community has never heard of.

FWIW, the APIs have been in <memory.h> since 1986 in 4.3BSD, and in
System V they go back further to 1983.


Have a lovely night!
Alex

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

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