From: "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
To: Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de>
Cc: Jakub Wilk <jwilk@jwilk.net>,
"Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)" <alx.manpages@gmail.com>,
linux-man <linux-man@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3)
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2021 08:40:20 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAKgNAkgW_uS1cw++aMQhQGgWjUpxzAgoBxjQ8p-2zxP3Gy2AkQ@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <F7B7DAEFD32949CD810BFC567ACA7B70@H270>
On Mon, 12 Jul 2021 at 20:44, Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de> wrote:
>
> "Jakub Wilk" wrote:
>
> >* Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de>, 2021-07-12, 11:37:
> >>JFTR: to avoid any possible confusion of "null byte" alias NUL with the
> >>"null pointer" alias NULL (C macro) or nullptr (C++), "null byte"
> >>should be replaced with "NUL byte"!
> >
> > "NUL byte" looks like a typo for "NULL byte", so if anything, it makes
> > the potential for confusion greater.
Exactly my concern.
> > Anyway, "null byte" is the preferred term in the man-pages style guide;
> > see the "NULL, NUL, null pointer, and null character" subsection in
> > man-pages(7).
Also, "null byte" is the term used in the C standard.
> Despite the statement
>
> | Avoid also the terms "zero byte" and "null character".
>
> the heading of said subsection itself but says "null character" instead
> of the preferred "null byte"!
That's fixed now.
> JFTR: the search function on <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/index.html>
> gives 21 matches for "zero byte", 46 matches for "null character",
Sure, but that presumably is because of pages in other projects.
(man7.org renders pages from 100+ projects.)
> and 146 matches for "null byte", i.e. the preferred term is not used
> in 1 of 3 cases.
>
> And despite the statement
>
> | The preferred term for the pointer is "null pointer" or simply
> | "NULL"; avoid writing "NULL pointer".
>
> plus a changelog entry (for version 3.56)
>
> | Various pages
> | Michael Kerrisk
> | Global fix of "NULL pointer"
> | Change "NULL pointer" to "NULL" or null pointer".
> | POSIX uses the term "null pointer", not "NULL pointer".
>
> 43 pages still contain "NULL pointer", while 197 pages say "null pointer".
>
> There's plenty room for improvement!
I agree, but I think the issue is mostly fixed in man-pages.
Thanks,
Michael
--
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/
prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-08-10 6:40 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-07-12 9:37 wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3) Stefan Kanthak
2021-07-12 16:09 ` Jakub Wilk
2021-07-12 18:41 ` Stefan Kanthak
2021-08-10 6:40 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) [this message]
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