6 ms·

Survey of Commonly Available C System Header Files

58 points by MattJ100 13y ago

Daviey 13y ago
Useful reference, and whilst controversial - i'd like to have seen ssl.h/openssl.h aswell. But anyway, thanks. :)
McUsr 13y ago
Hello. This is really nice, I just have one question, ( maybe I have overlooked it), where is the test-suite for gathering the data?´, as to which headerfiles are workable or not? Is there a configure script there? I mean, I am on Snow Leopard, and I have no trouble using unistd.h which is marked as flawed on the graph.
- Daviey 13y ago
  See the second paragraph, where it states.. https://github.com/zackw/header-survey/ https://github.com/zackw/header-survey/
  - McUsr 13y ago
    Hello. All I see that is that it is a survey, I wonder what kind of tests that are used to draw the conclusions. I also see for instances that the regexp.h file is absent for OS X Lion, which is reworked to work wide wide characters. But, the header files may fail in ways I don't know about, that is why I ask for the tests that makes up for the results.
    - simcop2387 13y ago
      If you'll look at the code in the link posted previously, it appears that it is testing for the presence of the headers rather than functionality inside of them.
- sltkr 13y ago
  > I am on Snow Leopard, and I have no trouble using unistd.h which is marked as flawed on the graph. The whole row for `unistd.h` is green (except for MSVC, of course) -- why would you think it's flawed on OS X?
nkozyra 13y ago
This could be really useful for me but the presentation breaks (at least on Chrome). By the time you're halfway down the list it's hard to tell which header's row belongs to which compiler's column.
- _cbdev 13y ago
  It also renders extremely bad on Opera/Win7x64 (Table Headers totally cut off) and is sluggish to navigate. Looking at the source I got why that is. Really good idea, but the presentation needs a do-over.
- sneak 13y ago
  Yeah, this is definitely a header problem with the header on the table about header problems.
- igravious 13y ago
  Scroll down works in FF (20.0) but not in Chrome (26.0...) on a Mac.
  - kps 13y ago
    Does not work in FF 20.0 on Ubuntu. (The header shrinks so that the labels no longer line up with the columns.)
zokier 13y ago
I'm surprised by the small number of "unusably buggy" headers. Maybe it's due most platforms being reasonably recent. Otherwise I'd say bringing msvc to c compiler comparison is like bringing knife to gunfight.
- stephencanon 13y ago
  MSVC isn't a C compiler. It's a compiler for The Language Formerly Known As C.
  - pjmlp 13y ago
    MSVC does not exist. The only product Microsoft sells is called "Microsoft Visual C++".
    - zokier 13y ago
      yeah, and GCC is gnu compiler collection. that doesn't stop everybody calling microsoft visual c++ msvc and gnu compiler collection gcc.
      - pjmlp 13y ago
        The issue is that GCC was once upon a time only "Gnu C Compiler", whereas Visual C++ was always named like that.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
pjmlp 13y ago
Nice, although I find a few issues: - A few commercial compilers are missing. - How much of POSIX does SUA in Windows support?
cperciva 13y ago
It would be nice to see a POSIX.1-2008 section too -- many of the headers listed as "POSIX.1-2001 optional" are required in POSIX.1-2008. (e.g., <aio.h>, <cpio.h>, <dlfcn.h>, <iconv.h>, <langinfo.h>... and <pthread.h>, which is probably the most commonly used 2001-optional/2008-required header).
niggler 13y ago
Does Cygwin GCC include the same set of posix headers as Unix GCC?
bitbckt 13y ago
It'd be great to see a metric of "completeness". For instance, while <semaphore.h> declares support for unnamed semaphores on OS X, the platform does not have them.

58 points by MattJ100 13y ago

Useful reference, and whilst controversial - i'd like to have seen ssl.h/openssl.h aswell. But anyway, thanks. :)

McUsr 13y ago

Hello. This is really nice, I just have one question, ( maybe I have overlooked it), where is the test-suite for gathering the data?´, as to which headerfiles are workable or not? Is there a configure script there? I mean, I am on Snow Leopard, and I have no trouble using unistd.h which is marked as flawed on the graph.

Daviey 13y ago
See the second paragraph, where it states.. https://github.com/zackw/header-survey/ https://github.com/zackw/header-survey/
- McUsr 13y ago
  Hello. All I see that is that it is a survey, I wonder what kind of tests that are used to draw the conclusions. I also see for instances that the regexp.h file is absent for OS X Lion, which is reworked to work wide wide characters. But, the header files may fail in ways I don't know about, that is why I ask for the tests that makes up for the results.
  - simcop2387 13y ago
    If you'll look at the code in the link posted previously, it appears that it is testing for the presence of the headers rather than functionality inside of them.
sltkr 13y ago
> I am on Snow Leopard, and I have no trouble using unistd.h which is marked as flawed on the graph. The whole row for `unistd.h` is green (except for MSVC, of course) -- why would you think it's flawed on OS X?

nkozyra 13y ago

This could be really useful for me but the presentation breaks (at least on Chrome). By the time you're halfway down the list it's hard to tell which header's row belongs to which compiler's column.

_cbdev 13y ago
It also renders extremely bad on Opera/Win7x64 (Table Headers totally cut off) and is sluggish to navigate. Looking at the source I got why that is. Really good idea, but the presentation needs a do-over.
sneak 13y ago
Yeah, this is definitely a header problem with the header on the table about header problems.
igravious 13y ago
Scroll down works in FF (20.0) but not in Chrome (26.0...) on a Mac.
- kps 13y ago
  Does not work in FF 20.0 on Ubuntu. (The header shrinks so that the labels no longer line up with the columns.)

zokier 13y ago

I'm surprised by the small number of "unusably buggy" headers. Maybe it's due most platforms being reasonably recent. Otherwise I'd say bringing msvc to c compiler comparison is like bringing knife to gunfight.

stephencanon 13y ago
MSVC isn't a C compiler. It's a compiler for The Language Formerly Known As C.
- pjmlp 13y ago
  MSVC does not exist. The only product Microsoft sells is called "Microsoft Visual C++".
  - zokier 13y ago
    yeah, and GCC is gnu compiler collection. that doesn't stop everybody calling microsoft visual c++ msvc and gnu compiler collection gcc.
    - pjmlp 13y ago
      The issue is that GCC was once upon a time only "Gnu C Compiler", whereas Visual C++ was always named like that.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

pjmlp 13y ago

Nice, although I find a few issues: - A few commercial compilers are missing. - How much of POSIX does SUA in Windows support?

cperciva 13y ago

It would be nice to see a POSIX.1-2008 section too -- many of the headers listed as "POSIX.1-2001 optional" are required in POSIX.1-2008. (e.g., <aio.h>, <cpio.h>, <dlfcn.h>, <iconv.h>, <langinfo.h>... and <pthread.h>, which is probably the most commonly used 2001-optional/2008-required header).

niggler 13y ago

Does Cygwin GCC include the same set of posix headers as Unix GCC?

bitbckt 13y ago

It'd be great to see a metric of "completeness". For instance, while <semaphore.h> declares support for unnamed semaphores on OS X, the platform does not have them.