This message is from the T13 list server.

> I regret to report we have ... precedent ...
> against ... positive residue as an error.

I do have a relevant opinion about API.  I stumbled into a convention for the result 
after dispatching a command and data that helps host folk not tolerate positive 
residue by oversight:

Suppose the result is a single int.  You can make zero mean everything ok, positive 
mean positive residue, and negative mean any deeper trouble.

That way, people who wrongly think that residue never is positive have to go out of 
their way to tolerate it.  They have to write (result >= 0) rather than (result == 0), 
which is deprecated enough among programmers to catch people's eye in code reviews.

Pat LaVarre


Subscribe/Unsubscribe instructions can be found at www.t13.org.

Reply via email to