Request for warnings on implicit bool to int conversions

[mathog <mathog at caltech dot edu>]

The C99 bool data type, and the similar type in C++, currently (v 
4.5.2) do not generate
warnings for any of these sorts of operations:

bool b;

  b = 3;
  b++;
  b += 2;
  if(b == 3)
  etc.

This can lead to a lot of hidden mischief because a variable declared 
far away may look like
an integer, but it acts like a bool.  It would be nice if there was a

  -Wimplicit_bool

that was enabled in -Wall which complained about these sorts of 
operations.  In particular
it would warn any time a bool was implicitly promoted to an int.

This issued was recently discussed in newsgroup comp.lang.c under the 
subject:
 c99 and the lack of warnings when int operations are applied to a bool

Thank you,

David Mathog
mathog@caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech