:On 11 Feb 2005 16:02:28 GMT, (e-mail address removed)-cnrc.gc.ca (Walter
:Roberson) wrote:
:>The third answer would be that I have been answering questions in
:>technical newsgroups and LISTSERVs and mailing lists and such since
:>before Usenet escaped from Universities, but I have never before
:>encountered a technical newsgroup that has been so narrow-minded
:>and hair-splitting about what the cliques deem discussible or
:>not.
:I suspect that you have rarely or never encountered a newsgroup which
:is so consistently useful, on topic, and free of politics and flames,
:either. This is a good thing.
Your suspicion would be wrong. I have participated for many years
in newsgroups that are more consistantly useful, on topic, and free
of politics and flames. In those groups, I was usually, for several
years in each case, the second or third most active contributor to the
group (one of the appropriate manufacturer's people would usually be
more active, with myself usually being the most active person who did not
work for the company.)
In the newsgroups I have been active in, the only people who have
been made unwelcome have been the ones who a) are asking that someone
else do their homework for them; or b) are asking that someone steal
or break the law for them; or c) spammed. In comp.lang.c, on
the other hand, one need seldom read more than half a dozen postings
before encountering pointed dismissals of someone who had asked a question
that ay even just a little outside of what can be done outside of the
ISO standards.
:There is no re-purposing involved. The discussion of conforming C code
:is *already* the purpose of this group.
Sorry, that is incorrect.
comp.lang.c has no recorded charter in the ftp.uu.net archive
of control messages.
comp.lang.c was renamed from net.lang.c; the announcement
was November 7, 1986
http://www.google.ca/[email protected]
net.lang.c was created Oct 22, 1982 by Jerry Schwarz,
http://www.google.ca/groups?selm=bnews.eagle.565
My suggestion for a "C" newsgroup met with support and no
opposition so net.lang.c (note lower case) has been created.
It's purpose is to carry on discussion of C programming and
the C programming language. Appropriate topics are
Queries on how to write something in C
Queries about why some C code behaves the way it does
Suggestions for C modifications or extensions
C coding "tricks"
Compiler bugs
Availability of compilers
etc.
Jerry Schwarz
BTL -- Murray Hill
harpo!eagle!jerry
Notice the point about "Suggestions for C modifcations or extensions".
Any such message would be outside the scope of a newsgroup
restricted to discussing "conforming" C. Similarily, "compiler bugs"
and "availability of compilers" distinctly fall into the
"platform dependant" category that people are told is inappropriate
in comp.lang.c .
I repeat the question: how can comp.lang.c be about "conforming"
C code when the newsgroup clearly predates the existance of *any*
standard to conform -to- ?