Re: [GSoC PATCH] pathspec: fix sign comparison warnings

From: Arnav Bhate <bhatearnav@gmail.com>
Date: Mar 16, 2025, 10:14 UTC
Message-ID: <a720058a-f8cd-422c-a8c3-af7536bfc880@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqcyelq714.fsf@gitster.g>

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:

Show 14 quoted lines

> Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com> writes:
> 
>> Also a bigger question is, shouldn't the type of `pathspec.nr` and
>> 'istate.cache_nr' be the actual change required? Shouldn't they be set
>> to 'size_t'?
> 
> Please do not blindly advocate the idea that size_t is always the
> right type for any countables.  It is not.  
> 
> Platform natural way to count things is either "unsigned int", if
> you are only counting, or "int", if you need to be able to signal an
> unusual state other than "here is now many we have in the set", like
> how index related functions uses (-pos-1) to signal a location in
> the same range with different meanings.

I did notice that negative states were sometimes used for such things, which why I said I didn't want to do the change to unsigned, it would be too complicated to change such things, and I do not think any alternative would be better.

-- 
Regards,
Arnav Bhate
(He/Him)