Message-Id: <200011261052.LAA03592@cave.bitwizard.nl>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] removal of "static foo = 0"
In-Reply-To: <3a219890.57346310@mail.mbay.net> from John Alvord at "Nov 26, 2000
 05:01:03 am"
To: John Alvord <jalvo@mbay.net>
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 11:52:37 +0100 (MET)
CC: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
From: R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl (Rogier Wolff)
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John Alvord wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Nov 2000 04:25:05 +0000 (GMT), Alan Cox
> <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> 
> >>  AB> of changes that yield a negligable advantage and reduce stability
> >>  AB> a tiny little bit. That is pushing Linux in the direction of this
> >>  AB> abyss. You notice that the view gets better, and I get nervous.
> >> 
> >> Can somebody stop this train load of bunk?
> >> 
> >> Uninitialized global variables always have a initial value of
> >> zero.  Static or otherwise.  Period.
> >
> >That isnt what Andries is arguing about. Read harder. Its semantic differences
> >rather than code differences.
> >
> >	static int a=0;
> >
> >says 'I thought about this. I want it to start at zero. I've written it this
> >way to remind of the fact'
> >
> >Sure it generates the same code
> 
> It also says "I do not know much about the details of the kernel C
> environment. In particular I do not know that all static variables are
> initialized to 0 in the kernel startup. I have not read setup.S."

Nope. It doesn't say that. Maybe if you wrote the code. But if Andries
or I had written that line, it just says that when written the
programmer thought about the initial value, and that the initial value
matters on this variable. 

It is a concise form of documentation. As Andries explained, this can
also be done with comments or with 

	static int a /* = 0 */; 

However, I like the "=0" variant much better. 

If you're worried about the inefficiency of the compiler, take it up
with the compiler guys. Or write an extra preprocessor step or
something like that.

			Roger. 

-- 
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