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Re: Defect in XBD 3.382_System_Console

To: yyyyyyyyyy@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Defect in XBD 3.382_System_Console
From: Larry Dwyer <yyyyyyyyyyy@xxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2003 16:22:53 -0700
Cc: yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
At 10:57 AM 8/7/2003, SHwareSyst@xxxxxx wrote:
It can be useful to know how many characters wide lines are on the console device, in case it truncates strings that go past the right edge instead of word wraps, so application error strings can be constructed to avoid loss of data using the fmtmsg() and syslog() interfaces. Perhaps an investigation

The user of fmtmsg(..) or syslog(..) doesn't know how many characters may precede the message, so it is not possible to reliably determine how long to make a log message.

into a minimal set of characteristics required to be documented as part of the PCD should be specified instead of changing to unspecified. This could also be of use to debugging applications that

Are you suggesting that we should mandate a minimum line length for the system console?  If the minimum set of characteristics includes the line length, then I will report that the minimum length of the line to my console is 0 (because my POSIX conforming system does not have a display connected to my "console").  On the other hand, the length might depend on what hardware the customer connects to the console spigot.

 wish to use the system console, where it's a separate device from the display used as the application terminal, instead of possibly sharing the devices used by an application under test.

I'm not prepared at this time to offer a counter-aardvark, but feel at least those aspects that relate to these interfaces being able to function in a usable manner should be part of the PCD and text indicating explicitly what minimum capabilities a console can be expected to have by a conforming application be added to this definition with details as part of XBD Chapters 8 & 11, and possibly Chapter 7.


                Cheers,
                Larry


Sincerely,
Mark

In a message dated 2003-08-07 10:20:07 AM Eastern Daylight Time, ajosey@xxxxxx writes:

  Defect report from : Andrew Josey , The Open Group

(Please direct followup comments direct to austin-group-l@xxxxxx)

@ page 88 line 2778 section 3.382_System_Console objection {impldef}

Problem:

Edition of Specification (Year): 2003

Defect code :  1. Error

The text says that this is "an implementation-defined device".
Use of this term requires the PCD to document the characteristics
of the device, yet there is no benefit to portable applications to
know the format.

Action:

Change "implementation-defined" to "unspecified"

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