Re: [bug-gnulib] Question concerning c-ctype, c-strcase, c-strcasestr and c-strstr modules

[Yoann Vandoorselaere]

On Tue, 2006-11-14 at 13:38 +0100, Bruno Haible wrote:
> Yoann Vandoorselaere wrote:
> > "However, if we have a platform missing strcasestr, then using
> > c_strcasestr as the substitute implementation is probably okay, because
> > that platform would probably be broken in other areas, such as locale
> > support, ...
> 
> Solaris 9 and Solaris 10 (which also doesn't have strcasestr) really
> are not broken in the area of locale support. Solaris has good locale
> support for years.
> 
> > such that a locale-aware replacement strcasestr would not be
> > worth the effort."
> 
> It's not a question of effort. (The "effort" for you is to put an identifier
> into the list of modules that you import from gnulib.) It's a question whether
> your application can possibly be handling Chinese text from a Chinese user,
> or whether it's handling ASCII English in all cases. In the first case,
> you need strcasestr; in the latter case, you need c_strcasestr.

The point here would be to modify c_strcasestr so that it can serve as a
replacement module. :-)

> > Also, depending on the program or library using the fallback GnuLib
> > module, you might not want a version of the function supporting locale,
> > for performance reason or because of the number of dependencies it would
> > bring, and the resulting library size. 
> 
> I don't think Chinese users will find it nice if you exclude them from
> correct functioning of your program because of "performance" or "library 
> size".

I don't think you are qualified to decide in place of the application
developer whether the application should handle localized input or not.

I'm not advocating to not use them: I'm advocating to let the developer
choose. Some of the library/program using GnuLib are used in embedded
system where size matter, and where you won't see anything else than
standard ASCII as input.

-- 
Yoann Vandoorselaere | Responsable R&D / CTO | PreludeIDS Technologies
Tel: +33 (0)8 70 70 21 58                  Fax: +33(0)4 78 42 21 58
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