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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!jussieu.fr!centre.univ-orleans.fr!univ-lyon1.fr!swidir.switch.ch!newsfeed.ACO.net!Austria.EU.net!EU.net!uunet!brunix!mhw From: mhw@cs.brown.edu (Mark Weaver) Subject: Re: Linux's primitive C library (was Re: 386BSD Remarkable?) Message-ID: <1994Aug29.024254.14252@cs.brown.edu> Sender: news@cs.brown.edu Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science References: <FOO-MAN.94Aug23191512@raven.raven.csrv.uidaho.edu> <Cv5u8o.CEn@calcite.rhyolite.com> <1994Aug27.175807.20821@cs.brown.edu> <RSANDERS.94Aug28172938@hrothgar.mindspring.com> Date: Mon, 29 Aug 1994 02:42:54 GMT Lines: 39 In article <RSANDERS.94Aug28172938@hrothgar.mindspring.com>, Robert Sanders <rsanders@mindspring.com> wrote: >On Sat, 27 Aug 1994 17:58:07 GMT, mhw@cs.brown.edu (Mark Weaver) said: > >> and the networking is ALMOST there. My only beef with it is that >> the C library is primitive compared to NetBSD. > >I haven't used or developed under NetBSD, and I actually do very >little of my programming in C nowadays, so I have to ask: what's >primitive about Linux's C library? In terms of BSD compatibility, it leaves a lot to be desired. There are a lot of missing header files, for example. The bottom line is really that I can compile just about anything "out of the box" on NetBSD, but most things need to be ported to Linux. NetBSD's libc does a good job of both BSD and POSIX, so it's great for now and for the future. Strictly speaking, this isn't Linux's "fault". It's just that BSD has been around a lot longer. But if you don't want to waste a lot of your time porting programs, Linux can be a pain. NetBSD is busy refining their libc while Linux is still getting their's fully functional. I have full confidence that the Linuxers will get all these problems ironed out eventually. Their curses library sucks because it has no optimization to speak of. Nvi, which uses curses, redraws the entire screen every time it scrolls a line. Also, they're using gdbm. Am I correct in suspecting that Berkeley's new dbm is better? Of course, now I'm talking about stuff outside of the C library. Mark -------------------------------------------------------------------- Email: Mark_Weaver@brown.edu | Brown University PGP Key: finger mhw@cs.brown.edu | Dept of Computer Science