From octave-maintainers-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu  Wed Feb  7 12:53:07 2001
Subject: Re: extern char *strptime () on FreeBSD 2.2.8
From: Trond Varslot <trond at varslot dot net>
To: John "W." Eaton <jwe at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu>
Cc: octave-maintainers at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu
Date: 07 Feb 2001 19:55:34 +0100

> 
> I've deleted the declaration of strptime from lo-cutils.c but added a
> cast:
> 
>   char *
>   oct_strptime (const char *buf, const char *format, struct tm *tm)
>   {
>     return (char *) strptime (buf, format, tm);
>   }
> 
> Is there any problem with that?

This should be fine also, and probably less of a hack. I will try a
compile tomorrow to make sure.

> BTW, why does FreeBSD declare it as returning const char*?  I don't
> know of any other system that does.  They all provide declarations
> with a non-const return type.

I don't know. Mind you, this is not the case in newer FreeBDSs. Maybe it
is just an error which has been corrected? Anyway, it can't be a
frequent practice, since noone else has complained about it. Free
software usually get a fair amount of beating on various systems. You
have to comply with most standards to not have people complain about
it:)


yours sincerely
Trond Varslot.