From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2023 01:00:49 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH] describe: fix --no-exact-match
Message-ID: <xmqqo7jfk8xq.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <20230810002638.GC795985@coredump.intra.peff.net>

Jeff King <peff@peff.net> writes:

>   int my_foo;
>   ...
>   OPT_CALLBACK('f', "foo", int, &my_foo, ...etc);
>
> Not great, but it might not be _too_ bad given that most helpers like
> OPT_BOOL() can just say "int" behind the scenes.
>
> That said, I don't recall these void pointers being a large source of
> errors in the past. So while it's a fun type-system puzzle, the
> effort/reward ratio might not be favorable.

I tend to agree on both counts, it is a fun puzzle, and it probably
is not going to give us sufficient reward.  The fact that "int" and
typeof(my_foo) need to be manually kept straight defeats the "type
safety" justification for this mental exercise.

Thanks.