FreeTDS Development Group

[christos AT zoulas.com (Christos Zoulas)]

On Dec 18,  2:00pm, jklowden AT freetds.org ("James K. Lowden") wrote:
-- Subject: Re: [freetds] warnings, again (was: Re:  going 64!)

| Christos Zoulas wrote:
| > The gcc warnings are geared towards the majority of the programmer
| > population.  All I can say is that I've met quite a few programmers
| > that did not know the precedence of && and ||. 
| 
| I'm sure you deal with more C coders than I do, and I don't doubt your
| experience.  It boils down to a kind of "reasonable man" argument: how
| much knowledge of operator precedence is it reasonable to assume?  Because
| you surely wouldn't write:
| 
|       a = (b + c);
| or    a = (++b);

No, I would not write that :-)

| You prefer to defer to the compiler writers because they have more
| information about what confuses people, and because their choices conform
| to your experience.  I think that's reasonable.  On another project I
| might do the same.  I'm not always a crank.  

And also because they are forcing me to. By making this warning part of
Wall, and by not allowing me to individually turn this warning off, they
are forcing me to comply :-)

| But when I find extra parentheses, I look more closely to see what's going
| on.  Is it:
| 
| 1.  Something unusual?  (I hope so.)
| 2.  A bug?
| 3.  Expressing only what the compiler would do without them? 
| 
| I have to examine #1 and #2 carefully before I conclude #3.  I can't be
| the only one.  
| 
| I would prefer to remove #3 from the problem domain.  I think that's
| reasonable, too.  Even if that means befuddling the less knowledgeable,
| who need to learn (and will).  After all, it was hard to write.  It should
| be hard to read, too.  

Yes, but that is you. There are others who when they don't see
parentheses are scratching their heads wondering what the compiler
is doing with the code. Granted, they should know better, but they
don't. There is yet another category of people who are not bothered
by the existence or the lack of parentheses. I fall into that
category, with a slight preference to having the parentheses,
perhaps because they have been forced down my throat for many years.

| I have to conclude that reasonable people can disagree on this point, else
| I'd have to conclude I'm being unreasonable.  
| 
| Fianlly, to both of you, and to others who've contributed what little
| light this discussion has generated: thanks for reminding me FreeTDS is
| compiled in many different environments and that its portability is an
| asset to you.  I think "builds anywhere, runs anywhere" is a worthy goal
| for the project.  Your participation furthers it. 

Thanks! My last comment is that I value the other gcc warnings too much
to be losing (not compiling with warnings turned on) them for a few
parentheses.

christos