From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Message-Id: <200105101425.KAA28328@egyptian-gods.MIT.EDU>
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] snprint(), getfields() specification
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 10 May 2001 09:56:56 EDT."
             <20010510135659.3B4A8199F0@mail.cse.psu.edu> 
From: Greg Hudson <ghudson@MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 10:25:11 -0400
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 9d6f1cd2-eac9-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

Rob Pike wrote:
> Really?  Unix sprintf tells you what it printed and snprintf tells
> you what it *might* have printed?  That's a scary inconsistency.

They both return the length of the formatted string.  Would it be any
less scary for sprintf to return the length of the formatted string
and snprintf to return something different and less informative?

Edge cases introduce consistency choices.  Better to avoid them,
e.g. with asprintf().