Paul Gilmartin writes:

<begin extract>
I have a colleague who has complained that UNIX callable services
exist in too many variants and should likewise be pameterized.  I
imagine he thinks of such as strcpy(1),
strncpy(1), and memcpy(1).
<end extract>

This problem can be viewed differently.  C and UNIX suffer from what
Whitehead called misplaced concreteness.  PL/I has the bif translate.
C has the two bifs upper and lower but no translate, of which they are
special cases.


John Gilmore, Ashland, MA 01721 - USA

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