Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1030501AbWJ3Dif (ORCPT ); Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:38:35 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1030503AbWJ3Dif (ORCPT ); Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:38:35 -0500 Received: from mailout.stusta.mhn.de ([141.84.69.5]:11786 "HELO mailout.stusta.mhn.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S1030501AbWJ3Dif (ORCPT ); Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:38:35 -0500 Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 04:38:34 +0100 From: Adrian Bunk To: "Robert P. J. Day" Cc: LKML , Oleg Verych Subject: Re: why test for "__GNUC__"? Message-ID: <20061030033834.GJ27968@stusta.de> References: <20061029120534.GA4906@martell.zuzino.mipt.ru> <20061029171855.GF27968@stusta.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2641 Lines: 66 On Sun, Oct 29, 2006 at 12:37:36PM -0500, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > On Sun, 29 Oct 2006, Adrian Bunk wrote: > > > On Sun, Oct 29, 2006 at 04:17:51PM +0000, Oleg Verych wrote: > > >... > > > On 2006-10-29, Robert P. J. Day wrote: > > >>... > > > And if you can, please, help with development or bugs, not this. > > > > Cleanup of the kernel source is also a valuable task (and as a side > > effect it even sometimes finds bugs). > > on that note, i realize that most of my postings are addressing > nitpicky/aesthetic issues that don't actually *hurt* anything, but for > someone who's clawing his way through the kernel code for the first > time, a lot of it is unnecessarily confusing. > > for better or worse, i generally assume that whatever i'm looking at > is there for a *reason* and i might spend some time puzzling over a > bit of code until it finally dawns on me that it's just historical > cruft that has no value. it's not a bug, it just doesn't *do* > anything anymore. > > in my case, it's sometimes easier to spot things like this since i'm > following along in some book, like r. love's "linux kernel > development." so when he writes that the linux kernel is wedded to > gcc, and yet i see tests for "__GNUC__" throughout the code, my little > antenna stalks perk up a bit. >... Looking at it, it seems I might look through them - some of them seem to be really pointless. > in any event, i'm most emphatically *not* (yet) at the level where i'm > going to be able to contribute bleeding-edge code. but i'm certainly > capable of poring over the *existing* code and pointing out the places > that might lead someone to mutter, "what the hell...?" > > maybe there's a better forum for me to make these observations. i'm > open to suggestions. i've made a list of these observations and i'd > be happy to send them to the right person. There's also the kernelnewbies list. But your emails are not as bad as you think - the email starting this thread as well as your earlier emails regarding menu structure etc. have some value (and they are better than many other questions that hit this list...). > rday cu Adrian -- "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days. "Only a promise," Lao Er said. Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/