unix-interface 0.1
Copyright (c) 1999 David Lichteblau <lichtebl@math.fu-berlin.de>


This is a collection of interface definitions to use C library
functions.  Most of the functions are needed for dfingerd, but hopefully
future programs will use this library and benefit from work that has
already been done.

Patches are welcome!


Installation
============

Using d2c:
  1) Check Makefile!
  2) $ make
  3) # make install

I haven't tried Mindy, but it should work.
[Update: Mindy-compatibility is broken now.]


Systems tested
==============

OS:
  - Linux/libc5
  - Linux/glibc2
  - <imagine-your-contribution-here>

d2c:
  - d2c 2.3.1 used to work at some point.
  - d2c 2.3.2 should work both with and without shared libraries, but
    has been tried only with shared libs enabled.


Overview
========

Currently Melange is used to process `interface.intr'.  Definitions from
`interface.dylan' get into the UNIX-INTERFACE module which adds Dylan
wrappers for some functions.

For every header file there is a separate module, e.g. PWD, ERRNO.

The wrapper functions catch errors and signal them as Dylan conditions
of class <UNIX-ERROR>.  There are some helper functions and macros to
make this easier.


Deficiencies (the TO DO list)
=============================

  - This library is very incomplete.
  - Just signalling direct instances of <UNIX-ERROR> is not enough.
    Subclasses should be defined and senseful error messages be
    generated.