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Aucbvax.4702 fa.unix-wizards utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!unix-wizards Tue Oct 27 15:24:08 1981 changing names of the string subroutines >From alice!ark@Berkeley Tue Oct 27 14:35:41 1981 You are correct: some operating systems have trouble with external names that differ only after the sixth character. It is felt here that it is very unlikely that a future operating system will distinguish fewer than six characters, because that would make FORTRAN so hard to implement. Thus, for portability, the unices in use at BTL have their library subroutine names distinct in the first six characters. Thus:

strcpyn -> strncpy strcatn -> strncat strcmpn -> strncmp

Also, to avoid confusing PL/I users:

index -> strchr rindex -> strrchr

(imagine a PL/I'er writing ... index ("foo", "oo") ...)

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