At 2:16 AM -0500 3/7/02, Brian T.Schellenberger wrote:
>Maybe your brain has gotten used to it, but to us ordinary
>mortals, even us ordinary mortals who've been slogging C
>code for time periods that can be measured in decades
>(yikes!), it is very tempting to read
>
> if (!strcmp(a,b,l))
>
>as "if the strings don't compare" which, in ordinary usage,
>means don't compare *equal*. But of course the C program
>is going to proceed to do exactly the opposite of that.
Okay, I will agree I have made that mistake a few times. Not
often, but it really burns me up when I realize that's the
source of some bug. So, that sounds like a good reason.
>But *ALL* of this is beside the nominal point ANYWAY, which
>is to discuss the proper wording for the man(9) style guide
>which is supposed to document how things things are actually
>done in the kernel, not personal preference.
As to the wording, PHK suggested that the wording for this
rule in style(9) be changed:
- - -
get rid of the word boolean, ie: change
Do not use ! for tests unless it is a boolean, e.g. use
to
Do not use ! for tests unless it is an integer type, e.g. use
- - -
Dave O'Brien claimed the very same rule was *only* there to
prevent "if (!strcmp(a,b))".
May I suggest that we probably want two different rules? Change
the current rule so it says 'integer type' instead of 'boolean'
(which doesn't really exist in C anyway), and then add the rule
about strcmp()?
--
Garance Alistair Drosehn = [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Senior Systems Programmer or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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