Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 10 Jul 2004 16:52:07 -0700 | From | Paul Jackson <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH] Use NULL instead of integer 0 in security/selinux/ |
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(off-topic alert)
> if (0 != i)
Does anyone know of the origins of writing such tests this way, rather than:
if (i != 0)
I read the first as testing whether "0" has a certain property, which is a silly thing to test, since the properties of "0" are rather constant.
The second form I read as testing a property of "i" - much more interesting. Logically, the same, of course. Just a question of which form is more idiomatic.
Back in the days when it was Ken, Dennis and Brian, not K & R, I don't recall seeing the first form used much. Even now I see _zero_ matches on "if (0 " in kernel or mm - only in arch, drivers, net, scripts, and sound (with a single time.h exception).
If I were Linus, I'd vote the first form off the island. Then again, if I were Linus, you would never have heard of Linux ;).
-- I won't rest till it's the best ... Programmer, Linux Scalability Paul Jackson <pj@sgi.com> 1.650.933.1373 - 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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