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Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 23:40:07 -0500 (EST)
From: Thomas David Rivers <ponds!rivers@dg-rtp.dg.com>
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To: ponds!zeta.org.au!bde, imp@village.org
Subject: Re: conditionally including <sys/param.h>
Cc: ponds!FreeBSD.ORG!freebsd-ports, ponds!FreeBSD.ORG!hackers,
        ponds!NUXI.com!obrien
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Warner Losh writes:
> 
> In message <199702051745.EAA12664@godzilla.zeta.org.au> Bruce Evans writes:
> : strerror() doesn't exist on old systems.
> 
> True.  But how old is old?

 This is a good point; and brings up one of 

   Dave's Portable Programing Axioms

     If a standard function is missing; provide it in a compatibility
     library - avoid kludges such as #ifdef's.  You'll have greatly
     improved legibility of the source, while helping future portability.

 As a case in point, in one of my older compatibility libraries, you 
can find strerror(). I believe it was missing on SunOS 3.5, some time
ago :-)

	- Dave Rivers -