From: Jonathan Wakely <jwakely.gcc@gmail.com>
To: Alejandro Colomar <colomar.6.4.3@gmail.com>
Cc: "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>,
Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>,
linux-man <linux-man@vger.kernel.org>,
GNU C Library <libc-alpha@sourceware.org>,
"linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
"gcc@gcc.gnu.org" <gcc@gcc.gnu.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] system_data_types.7: Add 'void *'
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2020 14:27:10 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAH6eHdTpzNk4+Rg-+kUCRDZPLHe7MBBf2PK5i1WqD4VeEs60oQ@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <63826e82-7a19-0ecc-f73c-56aa560a842f@gmail.com>
On Fri, 2 Oct 2020 at 14:20, Alejandro Colomar <colomar.6.4.3@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 2020-10-02 15:06, Jonathan Wakely wrote:
> > On Fri, 2 Oct 2020 at 12:31, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
> > <mtk.manpages@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Fri, 2 Oct 2020 at 12:49, Jonathan Wakely <jwakely.gcc@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, 2 Oct 2020 at 09:28, Alejandro Colomar via Gcc
> <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> wrote:
> >>>> However, it might be good that someone starts a page called
> >>>> 'type_qualifiers(7)' or something like that.
> >>>
> >>> Who is this for? Who is trying to learn C from man pages? Should
> >>> somebody stop them?
> >>
> >> Yes, I think so. To add context, Alex has been doing a lot of work to
> >> build up the new system_data_types(7) page [1], which I think is
> >> especially useful for the POSIX system data types that are used with
> >> various APIs.
> >
> > It's definitely useful for types like struct siginfo_t and struct
> > timeval, which aren't in C.
>
> Hi Jonathan,
>
> But then the line is a bit diffuse.
> Would you document 'ssize_t' and not 'size_t'?
Yes. My documentation for ssize_t would mention size_t, refer to the C
standard, and not define it.
> Would you not document intN_t types?
> Would you document stdint types, including 'intptr_t', and not 'void *'?
I would document neither.
I can see some small value in documenting size_t and the stdint types,
as they are technically defined by the libc headers. But documenting
void* seems very silly. It's one of the most fundamental built-in
parts of the C language, not an interface provided by the system.
> I guess the basic types (int, long, ...) can be left out for now,
I should hope so!
> and apart from 'int' those rarely are the most appropriate types
> for most uses.
> But other than that, I would document all of the types.
> And even... when all of the other types are documented,
> it will be only a little extra effort to document those,
> so in the future I might consider that.
[insert Jurassic Park meme "Your scientists were so preoccupied with
whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
]
I don't see value in bloating the man-pages with information nobody
will ever use, and which doesn't (IMHO) belong there anyway. We seem
to fundamentally disagree about what the man pages are for. I don't
think they are supposed to teach C programming from scratch.
> But yes, priority should probably go to Linux/POSIX-only types.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2020-10-02 13:27 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 16+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <41affebd-3354-9420-0048-bffd14535e95@gmail.com>
[not found] ` <20201001154946.104626-2-colomar.6.4.3@gmail.com>
[not found] ` <538b683f-01d2-6148-4f1d-1b293eb5cd6b@cs.ucla.edu>
2020-10-02 8:24 ` [PATCH v2 1/2] system_data_types.7: Add 'void *' Alejandro Colomar
2020-10-02 8:48 ` Alejandro Colomar
2020-10-02 11:44 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2020-10-02 9:10 ` David Laight
2020-10-02 17:00 ` Paul Eggert
2020-10-02 10:49 ` Jonathan Wakely
2020-10-02 11:31 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2020-10-02 13:06 ` Jonathan Wakely
2020-10-02 13:20 ` Alejandro Colomar
2020-10-02 13:27 ` Jonathan Wakely [this message]
2020-10-02 13:51 ` Alejandro Colomar
2020-10-03 8:00 ` Navigational corrections (was: Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] system_data_types.7: Add 'void *') Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2020-10-03 9:16 ` Navigational corrections Alejandro Colomar
2020-10-03 11:39 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2020-10-05 22:08 ` Alejandro Colomar
2020-10-07 6:53 ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
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