Re: xctime()

[Bruno Haible]

Robert Millan wrote:
> >   - In the average case, you can get away with 1 strftime call instead of 2,
> >     if you preallocate a buffer on the stack:
> >       char buf[256];
> >       len = strftime (buf, sizeof (buf), "%c", loctime) + 1;
> >     In the case where 256 bytes are not enough, the function will need
> >     3 strftime calls instead of 1, but this case should be pretty rare
> >     (even in Chinese and GB18030 encoding, 64 characters should be enough
> >     for a date + time display).
> 
> What about http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html#Semantics ?
> Avoiding arbitrary limits is a good thing IMO.

I'm not suggesting to introduce an arbitrary limit, but rather a threshold
below which the implementation is more efficient that above the threshold.
Take as example
  gnulib/lib/areadlink.c
  gnulib/lib/fprintf.c

Bruno