Re: [Jim Meyering] Re: strftime merge from Emacs

[Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>]

    > 	[__hpux]: Include sys/_mbstate_t.h.

    Using a macro like __hpux should be done only as a last resort.
    I hope there is a better way.

One idea is to test using Autoconf for the existence of such a file
and include it if it exists.  That will work provided there is no case
where that file exists but including it is harmful.

    Does emacs still cater to compilers that don't support prototypes?
    I've been removing k&r support (PROTOTYPES, __P, etc.) from the coreutils
    for years without complaint.  As far as emacs is concerned, is it possible
    to remove such support from this file altogether?

To remove it from strftime is tantamount to abandoning it in Emacs as
a whole.  I think we should be very cautious about that.

    I haven't seen WINDOWSNT used before.
    Here are some of the window-related macros I have seen:

      _WIN32 WIN32 __WIN32__ __MSDOS__ WINDOWS32

WINDOWSNT is what Emacs uses.  It is a GNU convention that we do not
use the abbreviation "WIN" to refer to Windows.  Are those names
used in any GNU packages?

    In any case, we try hard not to use system-dependent macros like that
    and prefer to use the results of configure-time tests.

That is preferable, but with a system as different from GNU as Windows is,
code for a specific system will tend to be needed often.