Date:	Wed, 16 Apr 1997 17:37:01 +0300 (IDT)
From:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To:	Wojciech Galazka <wgalazka AT chem DOT uw DOT edu DOT pl>
cc:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: DJGPP wish list
In-Reply-To:	<3354BA6B.7FAA@chem.uw.edu.pl>
Message-ID:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.970416172443.16452C-100000@is>
MIME-Version:	1.0

On Wed, 16 Apr 1997, Wojciech Galazka wrote:

> 2) Closer comatibility with Unix
>   for example <pwd.h> in DJGPP is broken

Please explain this in more detail.  First, what exactly do you think is 
broken in <pwd.h>?  And second, what other example of incompatibilities 
with Unix did you find?  (If there are no other examples, then why say 
``for example''?)

> 3) ioctl support for terminals

This exists, but is unfinished.  Please see the <sys/ioctl.h> header.  The
Unix-compatible stuff there is ifdef'ed away because the underlying
functionality is unimplemented.  (Some Unix-born programs test at compile
time for definitions of symbols such as TIOCGSIZE and if it is defined,
decide that ioctl functionality works, which then produces a broken 
program if you compile it with DJGPP.  So it is safer to not define these 
until the functionality is in place.)

It should be quite easy to implement the ioctl functions by using the 
DJGPP filesystem extensions mechanism.  Examples of supporting some ioctl 
functions in this way can be found in the DJGPP ports of GNU Fileutils 
(v2gnu/fil313s.zip, file ls-msdos.c) and Ispell (v2gnu/isp3120s.zip, file 
djterm.c), which see.

Somebody with enough motivation (you?) should sit down and add the 
minimal support for ioctl.  Experience shows that nothing in DJGPP gets 
done without a motivated individual who is ready to invest the necessary 
effort.

> 4) better support for shell programming

Please elaborate.  IMHO, the DJGPP support of Unix-like shells and their
features is much better than you could expect on MSDOS.  Please explain in
more detail what do you miss here. 

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