Re: [PATCH v3][GSOC] fsck: use bitwise-or assignment operator to set flag

Hiroyuki Sano <sh19910711@gmail.com> writes:

Two issues:

 * "In this patch," is redundant.

 * "it is brief and to the point" are equally applicable to both
   styles, so that is not a *reason* to choose one over the other.

If a condition were *not* brief and to the point, then a rewrite to the latter style will make the resulting code worse:

	if (a very complex condition
            that potentially have to consume a
            lot of brain-cycles to understand) {
		has_that_condition = 1;
	}

is a lot easier to extend than

	has_that_condition = (a very complex condition
                              that potentially have to consume a
                              lot of brain-cycles to understand);

because it is a lot more likely that we would need to later extend such a complex condition is more likely than a simple singleton condition, and we could end up with

	if (a very complex condition
            that potentially have to consume a
            lot of brain-cycles to understand) {
		futher computation to check if
                the condition really holds
                will be added here later
                if (does that condition really hold true?)
			has_that_condition = 1;
	}

which may be harder to express in the latter form.

In other words, "it is brief and to the point" merely _allows_ these statements to be expressed in the latter form; it does not say anything about which is better between the former and the latter.