Andries Brouwer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 12:39:55AM +0200, Hrvoje Niksic wrote: > > [muttering that he does not want to hear about differences > between the FreeBSD and the Linux API for the rand() family of functions; > don't know why - I always consider info about differences important]
I have provided arguments for my position, to which you failed to respond. You didn't give any reasons why you consider FreeBSD to be "very similar" to Linux and use that as justification for describing functions not supported on Linux. If you include descriptions of completely non-standard functions found on another OS and not present on Linux, then why not also document various of Solaris, AIX or Windows XP specific functions as well? After all, they contribute to "info about differences" too. The original wording of that paragraph should be an embarrassment to the author (which I don't claim to be you, I really have no idea who wrote that paragraph), who obviously didn't bother to understand the API he was deriding. It would be best if man pages not written by someone who cared to do the necessary research refrained from documenting the "differences" between Linux and other systems. Better yet, the limited space available in a man page should be spent documenting the API Linux does support. For example, it could mention that RAND_MAX is not 32767, unlike many other systems. It could mention that RAND_MAX+1 causes an overflow on Linux, breaking poorly written code. It could mention that rand(3) should *never* be used for cryptographic purposes. It could mention that standard library functions do not influence the sequence of numbers returned by rand. It could document the period of the random number generator, or that ISO C requires the period to be at least 2**32, if the period is considered an implementation detail and not part of the API. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
