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Linus Rants About C Programming Semantics (iu.edu)

Posted by Soulskill on from the old-man-and-the-C dept.

jones_supa writes: "Christ people. This is just sh*t," begins Linus Torvalds in his message on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. Torvalds is grumpy because some new code added to the IPv6 subsystem has created conflicts. "The conflict I get is due to stupid new gcc header file crap," he writes. "But what makes me upset is that the crap is for completely bogus reasons." The new improved code uses fancy stuff that wants magical built-in compiler support and has silly wrapper functions for when it doesn't exist. Linus provides an alternative that contains a single and understandable conditional, which looks cleaner and generates better code.

9 of 576 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not programming semantics, but the coder by Damouze · · Score: 3, Funny

    Reminds me of a friend of mine who used to check if a pointer was NULL, then if it was not and finally for other cases:

    if(!p)
    { ...
    }
    else if(p)
    { ...
    }
    else
    { ...
    }

    His reasoning: the compiler could have a bug and this way you would catch that bug.

    --
    And on the Eighth Day, Man created God.
  2. Have a Snickers Linus by CMOS4081 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You turn into Steve Jobs when you are hungry.

  3. Re:Linux is for Cows by Schmorgluck · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oooh, good! That joke was getting old. Nice way to milk it.

    --
    There's nothing like $HOME
  4. Re:Not programming semantics, but the coder by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    His reasoning: the compiler could have a bug and this way you would catch that bug.

    That's why all my variables are upper case and only use vowels. One day there might be a bug with lower case consonants, and then all you suckers will be laughing on the other side of your faces!

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  5. Re:When create the most used operating system by SQLGuru · · Score: 3, Funny

    * And for the love of fuck, please all stop starting posts in the Subject line..

    I never understood why people do that. It's the equivalent of having the first line of your letter be on the outside of the envelope.....or the first line of your e-mail be in the subject line......

    Oh wait --- car analogy required.....
    It's like having the ignition switch located on the hood of your car.

  6. It's no by konohitowa · · Score: 5, Funny

    three

  7. worse than by konohitowa · · Score: 3, Funny

    comments

  8. chaining by konohitowa · · Score: 5, Funny

    together.

  9. Re:Not programming semantics, but the coder by grcumb · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even better is having an "Undo" button (or in the case of a forum like this, an "Edit" button).

    The reason for not having UNDO should be obvious:

    Someone writes a post saying, 'Bieber is such a dick! Post below if you agree.' Hundreds do.

    Then the OP edits the post to read, 'Dick tastes great! Post below if you agree.'

    --
    Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.