groff: conflict with prototype arg name in getopt.h

[Werner LEMBERG]

Really glad to hear that!  Any chances that these `mild uglifications'
happen in the near future?


    Werner


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From: Roland McGrath <roland@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: groff: conflict with prototype arg name in getopt.h
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2001 15:16:15 -0400 (EDT)

> getopt is one of the few things in the GNU C library that is also used in
> nearly every GNU package, on all the myriad platforms supported by various
> packages.  (In fact, the getopt code predates the GNU C library.)  In this
> context, there is no hard and fast specification that applies--what applies
> is the standard of portability for essential GNU tools.
> 
> Because getopt is now maintained as part of the GNU C library, problems
> with it are brought to the libc maintainers, who in other respects are not
> normally concerned with that sort of portability.  But as the maintainers
> of getopt, we need to be sensitive to the portability needs of other GNU
> packages.  The same rules should apply now to getopt as did in the old days
> when it lived in /gd/gnu/lib.
> 
> Fortunately, there is really no need for a general debate on the whole
> issue right now.  The changes needed to be portable are just a mild
> uglification of the header file.  To my eyes, that is much less ugly than
> the piles of #if crapola we already have uglifying getopt.h for no reason
> except precisely this kind of portability.