Re: encapsulating directory operations

On 20/05/2025 11:36, Paul Edwards wrote:

"Keith Thompson" <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:87ecwj1vy9.fsf@nosuchdomain.example.com...

"Paul Edwards" <mutazilah@gmail.com> writes:
>

And C90 (etc) could potentially be extended to include a folder.h

>
C90 will never be extended.  It was made obsolete by C99, which was made
obsolete by C11, which was made obsolete by C23.  You're free to invent
your own language based on C90 if you like, but C went in a different
direction decades ago.

 That depends on your definition of "C". Ritchie is no longer here to
adjudicate whether something close to C90 - in the spirit of the
original C, is the true successor to his language, and which one is
a complete and utter joke of no relation to anything he designed.
 

Once C was standardised - first by ANSI, then immediately afterwards by ISO - the "definition of C" became clear.  The language is covered by an international standard, so "C" is the language defined by that standard.   Thus "C" means "C23" at the moment - each newly published C standard "cancels and replaces" the previous version.  Ritchie's opinion hasn't had any connection to the "definition of C" since 1989.  I don't know if he ever expressed a public opinion on C99, or the plans for C11.  I would, however, be astounded if he had considered it "a complete and utter joke of no relation to anything he designed".
(And while I don't think that an "appeal to authority" argument has much merit, he did say that he found Linux "quite delightful" as a continuation of UNIX, and I would not expect him to have viewed your OS ideas as productive.)

A semantic debate that doesn't answer my question either way anyway.
 

You did ask us not to give the obvious answer to your original post.
But Keith is absolutely correct here.  C90 is C90, and will remain that way (baring the very unlikely possibility of minor technical corrections).
You can make your own libraries, and OS's, and extensions, and languages - whatever makes you happy.  (And if you enjoy what you are doing, and it's not harming anyone, then that's all the reason you need.  You don't need approval from anyone else.  Don't let me or anyone else hinder you enjoying yourself.)  However, nothing that you ever do will be an extension to C90.