FreeTDS Development Group

["James K. Lowden" <jklowden AT freetds.org>]

I have an opinion I want to check with the old hands out there, because
the GNU C compiler issues a warning I think should be ignored.  

Given code like this:

        if (a && b || c && d)
                /* ... */

the compiler "recommends" parentheses, encouraging:

        if ((a && b) || (c && d))
                /* ... */

Please.  To he who would read the code, I say RTFM.  If K&R is too long
for you, here's a short version:

$ man operator | grep -E '&&|\|\|'
           &&                              left to right
           ||                              left to right

That's all you need to know.  

The FreeTDS code is loaded with deeply nested structures of pointers,
state maintenace, portability considerations.  Confusion is an ever
present threat, and confusion about C is surely the least of our concerns.
 

If you need examples of subtle things the compiler *won't* find that *are*
harmful:


        if((ret=func() != NULL))
instead of
        if((ret=func()) != NULL)

is a good one.  I fixed one like that last week.  So is:

        memset( ptr, len, '\0')

a favorite of mine, not least because '\0' is silly: the value argument is
defined as int.  

Am I missing something?  Are there compilers out there that would get this
wrong?  Do the parentheses give the compiler information it doesn't
otherwise have?  Or is this just nanny nagging we can turn off by default?
 

--jkl