Comment by dns_snek
2 days ago
> I can always write code like `if(ENOSYS) { return Ok("*") } instead of returning Err(ENOSYS)
You can do that but it's going to feel bad to write that and it's going to stand out like a sore thumb to anyone who reads it. But "errno" is just ambient state that's completely invisible unless you happen to have the manpage fresh in your memory.
[dead]
They had to write
after seeing that other implementations use different sentries like "*0" and that the spec says they MUST return NULL. That must have felt bad too.
Not the library authors but their users!