Re: [using gcc book] ch10.11 Certain Changes We Don't Want to Make

[Christopher Faylor <cgf at redhat dot com>]

On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 10:10:13PM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
>Chris Devers <cdevers@pobox.com> writes:
>
>> In section 10.11, "Certain Changes We Don't Want to Make" we have the
>> following paragraph:
>
>>   * Warning when a non-void function value is ignored.
>
>>     Coming as I do from a Lisp background, I balk at the idea that
>>     there is something dangerous about discarding a value. There
>>     are functions that return values which some callers may find
>>     useful; it makes no sense to clutter the program with a cast
>>     to void whenever the value isn't useful.
>
>> There's just a bit more axe-grinding from the MIT alum that wrote this
>> than is strictly necessary, I think :)
>
>How about this, which I think gets at the heart of the matter more
>directly:
>
>    C contains many standard functions that return a value that is
>    occasionally useful but usually ignored by most programs.  (printf is
>    an obvious example.)  It is commonplace to call those functions

I'd use "common" here rather than "commonplace".

>    without using their return value.  Warning about this practice only
>    leads to cluttering the program with dozens of casts to void.  Such
>    casts are required so frequently that they become visual noise, and
>    writing those cats becomes so automatic that they no longer convey

I spent way too much time wondering what a "cats" was here.  :-)

>    useful information about the intentions of the programmer.

Other than those two observations, I think you make the point much more
clearly than the previous text.

cgf