new topic...exorcising externs

[Henry Spencer]

I agree that "progname" for error-message purposes is a good use of
externs.  I am less happy about "errno" -- it's a kludge around the
problem of sometimes wanting specific error information and sometimes
not, and having problems fitting this into the classical return-value
paradigm -- but agree that we are stuck with it.

However, if those are the best examples people can come up with for
good uses of external variables, I think my contention (that external
variables are usually bad) is fairly safe.  These are a drop in the
bucket, folks, accounting for practically 0% of the use of external
variables.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry