[Bug 891854] Re: Typo in the scanf documentation (man)

[Daniel Holbach]

Uploaded, sitting in the review queue of the archive admins (Beta 1
Freeze).

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/891854

Title:
  Typo in the scanf documentation (man)

Status in “manpages” package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  Version used :
  -------------------
  $ lsb_release -a
  No LSB modules are available.
  Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
  Description:	Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS
  Release:	10.04
  Codename:	lucid

  
  Observed behaviour:
  -------------------
  $ man scanf

  
  There is a typo in the scanf documentation

  In the section "Note", there is a code example.
  The last instruction of this code example reads:

  fprintf(stderr, "No matching characters\n"):

  As is, the example won't compile.

  
  Reproduce-able & How to reproduce:
  -------------------
  Yes & copy/paste the example in any text file, compile it (gcc), and observe.

  
  Expected behaviour:
  -------------------
  The example should compile!

  So if we write instead

  fprintf(stderr, "No matching characters\n");

  
  Basically, replace the : (colon) by a ; (semicolon) the example nows compiles.

  
  Severity:
  -------------
  Minor...
  Because any 'reasonably trained' C/C++ programmer should fix the bug by itself in a few seconds.
  ... but examples given in manual should work, shouldn't they?

  
  Personal observation:
  ------------------
  Although the example compiles once the correction done, the 'a' modifier seams to have a lot of constraints and is not 'standard'; whereas it is explained after the example that 'm' modifier will be Posix and have many more advantages.

  Thus shouldn't the text about 'm' be before the example and the
  example be given with 'm' instead of 'a' as this seams the 'right'
  modifier to use (do people agree it is the best practice?) and 'a'
  looks sort of dangerous & deprecated.

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