Re: -Wformat-diag: floating-point or floating point?

[Martin Sebor <msebor at gmail dot com>]

On 5/22/19 6:27 AM, Richard Earnshaw (lists) wrote:
> On 22/05/2019 13:17, Bill Schmidt wrote:
> > On 5/22/19 5:19 AM, Richard Earnshaw (lists) wrote:
> > > On 21/05/2019 21:18, Bill Schmidt wrote:
> > > > On 5/21/19 11:47 AM, Martin Sebor wrote:
> > > > > The GCC coding style says to use "floating-point" as an adjective
> > > > > rather than "floating point."  After enhancing the -Wformat-diag
> > > > > checker to detect this I found a bunch of uses of the latter, such
> > > > > as in:
> > > > >
> > > > >    gcc/c/c-decl.c:10944
> > > > >    gcc/c/c-parser.c:9423, 9446, 9450, etc.
> > > > >    gcc/convert.c:418, 422
> > > > >    gcc/cp/call.c:5070
> > > > >    gcc/cp/cvt.c:886
> > > > >
> > > > > Before I fix them all and adjust the tests, I want to make sure
> > > > > we really want to follow this rule.  The C standard uses both
> > > > > interchangeably.  With just one exception, the C++ standard uses
> > > > > the hyphenated form.
> > > > The hyphenated form is correct English, so I certainly prefer it. :-)
> > > It's not quite as simple as that.  Hyphens should be used to make it
> > > clear what is the adjective and what is the noun:
> > >
> > >     A floating-point number (hyphenated) is a number with a
> > >     floating point (no hyphen).
> > >
> > > In the first case 'floating-point' is the adjective and qualifies
> > > number.  In the second case 'floating' is the adjective and qualifies
> > > 'point'.
> > >
> > > But this is English, so there are probably some exceptions even then -
> > > but not in this case, I think.  :-)
> >
> > English is always fun, agreed -- Martin cited the requirement to use
> > "floating-point" when it's used as an adjective, which is certainly correct.
> >
> > There's a more interesting question around cavalier usage such as,
> > "We should use floating point."  I would argue that there is an implied
> > noun "arithmetic" modified here, so this should also be hyphenated,
> > but I daresay there would be people on both sides of this one...
>
> I would argue that leaving out "arithmetic" is the error. :-)

I agree.  Unfortunately, there are a few cases like that among
the diagnostics that my script has already fixed:

  decimal floating point not supported
  comparing floating point with %<==%> or %<!=%> is unsafe
  ISO C does not support decimal floating point

They probably should read

  decimal floating point types not supported
  comparing floating-point values with %<==%> or %<!=%> is unsafe
  ISO C does not support decimal floating point types

I think they can be adjusted later if we think it's important,
after the checker is finalized and committed.  I don't want to
complicate it too much by having to differentiate between
adjectives and nouns.  The vast majority of the "floating point"
instances is has found are adjectives.

Martin


> > This is why grammar police usually die from friendly fire. :-)
>
> Sticking your head above the parapet is always fraught with danger :)
>
>
> R.