Re: [PATCH 1/5] notes-utils: handle boolean notes.rewritemode correctly

From: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date: Feb 18, 2014, 09:01 UTC
Message-ID: <20140218090156.GC2692@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To: <87vbwcstgw.fsf@fencepost.gnu.org>

On Tue, Feb 18, 2014 at 09:41:51AM +0100, David Kastrup wrote:

> gcc's flow analysis works with the same data as humans reading the
> code.  If there is no information content in the function call, it makes
> more sense to either making it void.

The point of error() returning a constant -1 is to use this idiom:

  if (something_failed)
          return error("this will get printed, and we get a -1 return");

>From a code perspective it's pointless. You could "just" write:

  if (something_failed) {
          error(...);
          return -1;
  }

which is equivalent. But the point is that the former is shorter and a little more readable, assuming you are familiar with the idiom.

> One can always explicitly write
> 
>   (config_error_nonbool("panic-when-assailed"), -1)

Yes, but again, the point is readability. Doing that at each callsite is ugly and annoying.

> Shrug.  This one has likely been discussed to death already.  Sometimes
> it's more convenient to avoid getting a question asked in the first
> place rather than having a stock answer for it.

You are the first person to ask about it, so there is no stock answer. However, everything I told you was in the commit messages and the list archive already. We can also avoid questions being asked by using those tools.

-Peff