Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 28 Aug 2001 06:27:22 -0700 (PDT) | From | Linus Torvalds <> | Subject | Re: [IDEA+RFC] Possible solution for min()/max() war |
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On Tue, 28 Aug 2001, Roman Zippel wrote: > > Linus Torvalds wrote: > > > I know people don't understand about the difference between signed and > > unsigned compares, and people may not even realize that just by doing > > the patches David ended up fixing a few real bugs that were uncovered > > simply by virtue of having to think about what kind of comparison it was > > supposed to be. > > What's wrong with "-Wsign-compare"? You just fixed only a minor amount > of compares.
-Wsign-compare is TOTALLY useless.
The problem with signed compares is not just comparing a signed entity against a unsigned one. It's quite common to have signed quantities on both sides, but _intending_ a unsigned comparison or vice versa.
This is simply an area where it's better to make people think about the types, than to magically try to do the "right" thing.
> What's wrong with this version?
[ Standard stupid min() removed ]
You just fixed the "re-use arguments" bug - which is a bug, but doesn't address the fact that most of the min/max bugs are due to the programmer _indending_ a unsigned compare because he didn't even think about the type.
Linus
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