Article View: comp.std.c
Article #5125Re: char *strcat(), *strcpy(), *fgets();
From: Doug Gwyn
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1988 18:07
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1988 18:07
29 lines
1246 bytes
1246 bytes
In article <1309@ark.cs.vu.nl> maart@cs.vu.nl (Maarten Litmaath) writes:
>Why do the functions named above return 'char *', instead of 'int', viz. the
>REALLY useful new size of the first argument string, or the number of chars
>moved?
"Historical reasons."
>Will this feature ever be changed?
No. That would break a large number of existing correctly-written programs.
>One gets() tired of typing '(void) strcpy(buf, str);'.
Oh, I don't know about that. Here is a real example from source code
I happened to have open in another layer on my terminal:
(void)strcat(strcat(strcat(strcat(strcat(strcpy(fn,
TargetDir
),
target
),
Slash
),
approx
),
Slash
),
CCMAP
);
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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!brl-adm!brl-smoke!gwyn From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) Newsgroups: comp.std.c Subject: Re: char *strcat(), *strcpy(), *fgets(); Message-ID: <8145@brl-smoke.ARPA> Date: 23 Jun 88 18:07:34 GMT References: <haddock.4604> <1719@ogcvax.ogc.edu> <1309@ark.cs.vu.nl> Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD. Lines: 29