Re: [RFA] Replace strdup with xstrdup in tic30-dis.c

Alan Modra
2002-11-26T23:57:38Z

On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 03:29:36PM -0800, Ian Lance Taylor wrote:
> Alan Modra <amodra@bigpond.net.au> writes:
>
> > Hmm, I'm inclined to just use "int" directly rather than introduce a
> > "bfd_boolean". Unless I hear objections, that's what I'll do one of
> > these days..
>
> I tend to think that bfd_boolean is better because it makes the code
> slightly more self-documenting. An int variable might hold any value,
> but a bfd_boolean variable is clearly intended to hold only a true or
> false value.

Yes, I agree that it's more self-documenting, but even better is to
use function names that are obviously predicates. My reason for
disliking the typedef is that it hides the real type in the same
way that macros hide things. When it comes to debugging code you
inevitably hit a situation where you need to ignore all the
documentation and look at all macros and typedefs to see what is
really going on.

> But I'm hardly fanatical about it.

Nor am I. :) So far, it's two people for "bfd_boolean", one for
"int".

--
Alan Modra
IBM OzLabs - Linux Technology Centre