--- Alexander Viro <viro@math.psu.edu> wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Aug 2001, Brad Chapman wrote:
> > > > What do you think, sir?
> > >
> > > Use different inline functions for signed and unsigned.
> > > Explicitly.
> >
> > OK. That sounds reasonable, but do we want to do another forced
> > change, or do we want to hide it? That seems to be the root of the problem:
> > keeping the same API but making it work _right_.
>
> Existing API is wrong. "Hiding" is precisely what's wrong here - we
> use the same name for two subtly different functions.
Mr. Viro,
OK. The existing API is wrong and the new min()/max() macros are the
right way to properly compare values. However, we could always add a config
option to enable a compatibility macro, which would use typeof() on one of the
two variables and then call the real min()/max(). Something like this (just an
example):
#ifdef CONFIG_ALLOW_COMPAT_MINMAX
#define proper_min(t, a, b) ((t)(a) < (t)(b) ? (a) : (b))
#define proper_max(t, a, b) ((t)(a) > (t)(b) ? (a) : (b))
#define min(a, b) proper_min(typeof(a), a, b)
#define max(a, b) proper_max(typeof(a), a, b)
#else
#define min(t, a, b) ((t)(a) < (t)(b) ? (a) : (b))
#define max(t, a, b) ((t)(a) < (t)(b) ? (a) : (b))
#endif
Unfortunately, this would violate your idea that "hiding" the real
code behind compatibility stuff is C++esque, and, IYO, an Evil Thing(tm). That
just leaves me with one question to everybody:
<rant type="question" intensity="30%">
Why did Linus change this out of /dev/null and suddenly run off!?
</rant>
Brad
=====
Brad Chapman
Permanent e-mail: kakadu_croc@yahoo.com
Current e-mail: kakadu@adelphia.net
Alternate e-mail: kakadu@netscape.net
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 31 2001 - 21:00:16 EST