Orphaned Response

[donn at hp-dcd.UUCP]

Nf-From: hp-dcd!donn    Jun 12 15:22:00 1984


I suggest that it is wise to take AT&T's documentation, or the fact that
something is not documented, with a grain of salt;  there is probably no
clear rule to follow as to whether the error is in the code, documentation
or the feature is "not ready yet".  I've found a lot of errors in both
undocumented features and documented non-features.  Granted, if it's not
documented, one should be more skeptical.

The following example is the kind of thing that makes me nervous about
trusting the documentation without confirming the details.

A comparison of the semop(2) manual pages for System V Release 1 (a.k.a.
5.0) and Release 2:

	V.1:  Semop is used to atomically perform an array of semaphore
	      operations...

	V.2:  Semop is uset to automatically perform an array of semaphore
	      operations...

I sincerely hope that the Release 1 version is correct, and some how the
change crept into the manual on its own.

Donn Terry
Hewlett-Packard