🚀 go-pugleaf

> A careful reading of Stroustrup, "C++ prog lang", 2nd ed., page 340
> indicates that the showpos attribute of an ostream causes the printing
> of '+' signs for positive ints.

Do not count on Stroustrup to be accurate or complete when it comes
to the iostream library.

> With Sun C++, this program
> ======================================================================
> #include <iostream.h>
> 
> int main(int, char*[])
> {
>   unsigned u = 1;
>   cout.setf(ios::showpos);
>   cout << u << endl;
>   return 0;
> }
> ======================================================================
> prints
> 1
> as seems appropriate, since u is not a positive int.  With (patched)
> g++-2.3.3 and (patched) libg++-2.3, the same program prints
> +1

I disagee: 1 is a positive int.

However, my ANSI draft is unclear.  It says:

	If i is positive and showpos is on, decimal conversion converts
	it to a plus signed (+) followed by decimal digits.  The other
	conversions treat all values as unsigned.

It might *possibly* be interpreted to imply that unsigned conversion
should not show a '+'.  I don't think that is the most natural
interpretation, but I will ask for a clarification.

	--Per Bothner
Cygnus Support     bothner@cygnus.com