Are they made changes to getchar() recently?

[Emil Enchev]

Why does these authors claim that getchar() acts in this way? Their book is from 2014. In its current version getchar() work just as expected - it read buffer's characters one by one. Have they made any change to this function recently - I doubt the aouthors are just an i$iots?!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11CivXkVcz454OQnenSuJk6YBrnq0RB2i/view?usp=sharing

#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
	printf("What are your two initials?\n");
	char firstInit;
	char lastInit;

 	firstInit = getchar();
	lastInit = getchar();

	printf("first Init: %c \n", firstInit);
	printf("last init: %c \n",lastInit);
	return(0);
}

[seeplus]

This program works as expected - and has always worked this way.

If you enter G<cr> T<cr> then firstInit gets the G and lastInit gets the <CR> - with T<cr> still in the buffer. If you enter GT <cr> then firstInit gets G and lastInit gets T with the <cr> still in the buffer. Note that getchar() only returns after a <cr> has been entered (easily proved by putting a puts("here"); after the first getchar() ).

However, the book discusses entering GT<cr> - hence it's incorrect (and always has been). It's not unusual for books (web sites et al) to be 'incorrect'.

[againtry]

There are numerous possible 'workarounds', including the one shown in the book. They all 'work'.

Trouble is none of them are any good without the prompt showing exactly how a user should enter the 2 initials.

Getting the user to enter a single string of 2 characters along with subsequent checking and processing would be better. After all that's what the stated purpose is.

[Emil Enchev]

"You would think that if the user typed GT, the G would go in the variable firstInit and the T
would go in lastInit, but that’s not what happens."

Probably they mean G<cr> T<cr> as you say - which is quite different from "if the user typed GT" but down in the text everything seems to speak only of an input type "G <cr> T<cr>". Tanks seeplus.