Re: linux libio solution

[Per Bothner <bothner at cygnus dot com>]

> What's so important that stdio/iostream can be mixed?

Because buffered output otherwise output comes in surprising order,
which confuses or annoys people.

Because the standard actually does requires synchronized stdio/iostream
in certain cases (for stdout/cout etc), and doing so without a
tried stdio/iostream implementation is quite expensive.

Because it adds extra useful functionality to stdio (including a
docuemted way to implement features that have long existed in glibc),
and it reduces duplicated functionality.

> This "feature" does not work on any other platform 

I doubt that.  I certainly works in some situations, since the standard
requiries that.

> and has caused so much harm.

"Harm"?  You don't know what you're talking about, or at the
least are using very poorly chosen words.  "Harm" implies a
misfeature that hurts users.  Mixing stdio/iostream is a
win for users.  But, by definition, if the stdio and iostream
implementation are tied together, it will complicate trying
to update one without the other.  We are discussing whether it
OK to require users to update one if they update the other, or
if we could/should work out a way so they can only update iostream
without updating stdio.  It is a wild leap to suggest that it is
"harmful" that they are tied together.

	--Per Bothner
Cygnus Solutions     bothner@cygnus.com     http://www.cygnus.com/~bothner