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- dLibs v1.2 10/19/87
-
-
- So, you gotten the v1.2 release of dLibs. NOW what!
-
- Well, hopefully, now you start writing (or porting) better programs.
- That's really what good libraries are all about, isn't it... a
- collection of useful routines that you don't have to rewrite for
- yourself in each program you create. That's what dLibs is meant to be.
- Since many C compilers (particularly Alcyon) come with buggy and/or
- incomplete libraries, and you RARELY get to see the source code, dLibs
- was created to fill that gap.
-
- The SRC archive is the source code (.s and .c) for all the library
- routines. The H archive is the \usr\include header files. The SYS_H
- archive is the \usr\include\sys header files. GIFTS contains some
- sample programs. The library, it's index file (for ALN), the docs,
- and the startup module are all in the root of the archive.
-
- I'd like to see these routines distributed as widely as possible as I
- feel they will be a benefit to many people. The only restriction I'd
- like to place on the use of dLibs is this. If you modify the source
- code, please don't redistribute it under the name "dLibs". I encourage
- people to look at, play with, modify and improve the source code as
- much as they want, and would gladly accept suggestions (preferrably
- with source code) for changes/additions to dLibs. I simply want to
- avoid the problem of digressive versions of dLibs.
-
- This is now the third release of dLibs and so far I've been pretty
- happy with the way people have been using these routines, though I
- would like to see them used a little more widely. I expect now that
- I'm going to become more active with Minix, and since dLibs is being
- released with Sozobon C, they will be getting more exposure.
-
- I must thank the developers of Sozobon C for getting me off my
- posterior and encouraging me to collect up all the changes I had
- sitting on my system for a new release. In the process, I decided it
- was time to add many more functions to come closer to the X3J11
- proposed C standard. The end of DLIBS.DOC contains a sketchy history
- of changes since v1.0, and mentions most of the new additions.
-
- In particular, I've included a getopt() function derived from a
- publicly posted version from Doug Gwyn. I've modified the routine to
- accept more variations in command line format, but the original
- stricter version can be obtained by #define'ing STRICT and recompiling
- that module. This is a very useful function, for those who haven't
- used it before. I've included a couple of sample programs which show
- it's use (as well as a few other functions).
-
- One of the sample programs (in the GIFTS archive) is a newer version
- of the substitution stream editor (SSED) that I included with the v1.1
- release. This version is more flexible, although it still only
- implements the most commonly used sed command, [s]ubstitute.
-
- As usual, this release was not a single-person effort. I want to
- thank the Sozobon developers, Tony Andrews, Johann Ruegg and Joe Treat,
- for numerous helpful hints and additions as well as their making
- changes to the compiler to help implement some of the functionality in
- the current dLibs; John Stanley has again been a great help in
- debugging, particularly with the printf/scanf functions which are his
- creation; Doug Gwyn, as stated before, wrote the code on which my
- getopt() is based; Charles Anderson and David (orc) Parsons helped
- with analysis and design of the improved tty handling code for the
- completely rewritten standard i/o functions; My wife Ruth has been
- very patient with my late evening hours; And numerous others have
- assisted with their comments and suggestions.
-
- --
- Dale Schumacher 399 Beacon Ave.
- (alias: Dalnefre') St. Paul, MN 55104
- dal@syntel.UUCP United States of America
- "It's not reality that's important, but how you perceive things."
-