Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 31 Jan 2005 12:49:57 -0800 | From | Paul Jackson <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH 9/8] lib/sort: turn off self-test |
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Matt wrote: > I actually think that more code > ought to have such tests, so long as they don't obscure the code in > question.
If all the little unit tests that had ever been coded for kernel code were embedded in "#if 0 ... #endif" sections, it _would_ obscure the code.
To the local maintainer of a file, it's not much of an issue, as they are actively familiar with what's there and look past the disabled test. But to the stranger passing through, it's just another three dozen lines of code that need to be waded through, or another false hit or two on some wide ranging grep that needs to be filtered out.
Instead, I'd suggest a couple of comments:
1) Describe this unit test in a comment, such as:
/* * Nice unit test for this sort: try sorting the array * of 1000 integers constructed with the loop: * for (i = 0; i < 1000; i ++) * a[i] = r = (r * 725861) % 6599; * Sort then verify that for each i: a[i] <= a[i+1]. */
Five lines of comment are substantially less intrusive than three dozen lines of code. Both smaller, and even in the output of a grep, visually distinct.
2) Describe whatever it was you stumbled on that's behind your comment:
I ran into a strange regparm-related bug ...
-- I won't rest till it's the best ... Programmer, Linux Scalability Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com> 1.650.933.1373, 1.925.600.0401 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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