Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help@sourceware.cygnus.com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner@sources.redhat.com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin@sources.redhat.com Message-Id: <4.3.1.2.20010215121908.019863a8@pop.ma.ultranet.com> X-Sender: lhall@pop.ma.ultranet.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 4.3.1 Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 12:20:40 -0500 To: Jean Delvare From: "Larry Hall (RFK Partners, Inc)" Subject: Re: file descriptors opened as text files Cc: cygwin@sources.redhat.com In-Reply-To: References: <4.3.1.2.20010215104635.017d17d8@pop.ma.ultranet.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 12:21 PM 2/15/2001, Jean Delvare wrote: > > Its not a Cygwin invention. Its a MS one. Check out the documentation > > for open()/_open() on the MSDN. They use the _O_BINARY flag. Don't get me > > wrong. I hate text mode in all its forms. Perhaps Cygwin could've forgone > > its use here. Maybe not. However, doing so here follows the MS lead and > > wasn't a Cygwin concoction. >I don't use MS development softwares. That's not the point here. Cygwin >intends to provide an environment for fast port from Unix to Windows, so >what it must look and behave like is Unix, not Windows. And the fast if, >O_BINARY and O_TEXT are not defined on Unix systems. Moreover, a file >descriptor is always working in binary mode on Unix. Thus, the choice >Cygwin made here will necessary cause problems to anyone porting a >software using file descriptors, and there must (and will) be thousands, >for sure. > >I strongly believe that the correct behavior would be to consider any file >descriptor as binary. People needing higher lever control are supposed to >use handles anyway, not descriptors. Feel free to start another binary vs text file debate/war but for the sanity of all on this list that have lived through it many times before here, take it up on another list. Thanks, Larry Hall lhall@rfk.com RFK Partners, Inc. http://www.rfk.com 118 Washington Street (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office Holliston, MA 01746 (508) 893-9889 - FAX -- Want to unsubscribe from this list? Check out: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple