gcc-patches@gcc.gnu.org, zack@codesourcery.com

[DJ Delorie]

Please just put the original function and prototype back in.  There is
no reason to have removed it in the first place.  If it were me, I
would have not touched libiberty.h at all, and only given the array a
useful initial value for those programs that forget to call hex_init -
but I still would have documented that programs must call hex_init
before using the functions.  At some point in the future (EBCDIC
variants?)  it might become mandatory to call it, and it's easier to
just document it that way all along.

However, I don't mind _hex_value[] becoming a const, and having an
empty hex_init function in libiberty/hex.c for now.  But please have
*a* function there, else the ABI for existing libiberty shared
libraries changes in an incompatible way.