While GCC optimizer automatically does this (since the value is a constant
known at compile-time), it may still be worth doing as it essentially
reduces one "phase" in optimizer, speeding compilation up just slightly
(Though doubt it you'd notice unless every line in code did that;) and
letting the other optimization phases to work on the already optimized
code (Altough, again, the passes have been tried to arrange in such an
order that later passes depend only on earlier changes, if you get what I
mean).
Also, for somebody debugging the code it will be easier to have the source
match the binary (Even if it's easy to make that conversion in mind and
probably no surprise to most). In short, it probably doesn't matter, but I
think it's still good coding practice to optimize the source-code already
where possible without damaging the code readability - somebody might
disagree saying they find %4 more readable than &3, but I think
understanding the equivalence should be prerequisites to kernel work.
-Donwulff
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