Re: Where can i get the design documentation for core utils?

[David Feuer]

On Sun, Sep 11, 2005 at 10:05:17AM +0200, Alfred M. Szmidt wrote:
>    Unfortunately, the source code does not always have the internal
>    documentation it should, and can be quite hard to follow.  An
>    excellent example of this is sort.c.
> 
> Bad example, sort.c is trivial to follow and understand.

Much of it is, some of it is not.  The whole darn thing being in one
file sure doesn't help matters.

> I just did, quite easy to follow (strcoll just calls strcoll_l, same
> deal for strxfrm).  If you meant the strcoll_l/strxfrm_l functions,

which I obviously did,

> you might have a point, but then, string handling of any kind in C is
> hairy.  Understanding what str{coll,xfrm} do will help you understand
> what the code does, and how it does it.

While strcoll is fully specified by the standards, strxfrm is only
pertially specified.  The details are implementation-dependent.  As far
as I can tell, the details of what GNU libc strxfrm does are not
documented.

> As for how locales are
> compiled (not my turf in libc land), no idea, but I doubt that format
> is "completely undocumented".

Very nice that you doubt it.  I did my own personal best to search the
source for documentation on the file format without success.  I asked
for help on the GNU libc mailing list without success.  If you tell me
where to find the documentation, I will be very thankful.  Good luck.

> I think you are just not proficient in C to understand a bit more
> complex C code, and wish to have a crutch called `internal
> documentation'.

It is surely true that I am not the best programmer in the world.  But
when faced by things like glibc-2.3.5/locale/coll-lookup.c I suspect
even a fancy New York keyboard jockey would wonder just what it was all
about.

David