May prototypes be required for lib functs

Jon Ryshpan jon at hitachi.uucp
Fri Sep 7 04:56:31 AEST 1990


May an ANSI C compiler maker require that users of a compiler and its
libraries put prototypes for the lib functs in functions which call
these lib functs?

For example it might be desirable for lib functs to pop their own
arguments (callee pops convention).  This is clearly not possible
unless the callee knows the number and types of its arguments.

On the other hand this requirement will break any code which doesn't
include the appropriate header files, eg. string.h for strcpy.  Most
K&R C code doesn't include these headers.

Is such a requirement is *permitted* under ANSI C, and is it a good
idea?

Many Thanks:	

Jonathan Ryshpan		<...!uunet!hitachi!jon>

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