JTC1/SC22/WG14 N777

                 Document Number:  WG14 N777/J11 97-141

                               C9X Revision Proposal
                               =====================

       Title: File position indicator after fgetc failure

       Author: Fred J. Tydeman
       Author Affiliation: Tydeman Consulting
       Postal Address: 3711 Del Robles Dr., Austin, TX 78727-1814
       E-mail Address: tydeman@tybor.com
       Telephone Number: +1 (512) 255-8696
       Fax Number: +1 (512) 255-8696

       Sponsor: NCITS/J11
       Date: 1997-09-25
       Document History: N/A.
       Proposal Category:
          __ Editorial change/non-normative contribution
          _Y Correction
          __ New feature
          __ Addition to obsolescent feature list
          __ Addition to Future Directions
          __ Other (please specify)  ______________________________
       Area of Standard Affected:
          __ Environment
          __ Language
          __ Preprocessor
          _Y Library
             __ Macro/typedef/tag name
             _Y Function
             __ Header
          __ Other (please specify)  ______________________________
       Prior Art: Not sure_________________________________________
       Target Audience: All users.
       Related Documents (if any):  SC22WG14.2615__________________
       Proposal Attached: _Y Yes __ No, but what's your interest?

       Abstract: Have fgetc advance the file position indicator if
       and only if it obtains a character.

       Proposal:

       In 7.12.8.1 The fgetc Function and in 7.18.3.1 The fgetwc
       Function,

       change in the description:

       "... and advances the associated file position indicator for
       the stream (if defined)."

       to:

       "... and advances the associated file position indicator for
       the stream (if defined) if and only if the next [wide]
       character was present."

       Rationale:

       In previous email to the WG14 reflector, around June, 1996,
       several of us agreed that fgetc was unclear about the file
       position indicator if end-of-file or error indicator was set
       by fgetc and that a DR should be done.  As far as I know,
       no one did that DR.  This is my suggested fix to the problem.

       This fix appears to not conflict with footnote 165 in 7.12.3
       Files: "Setting the file position indicator to end-of-file,
       as with fseek(file,0,SEEK_END), has undefined behavior for a
       binary stream (because of possible trailing null characters)
       ..."