Re: [RFC PATCH] avoid printing type suffix with %E

[Joseph Myers <joseph@codesourcery.com>]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2016, Martin Sebor wrote:

> The attached patch implements one such approach by having the pretty
> printer recognize the space format flag to suppress the type suffix,
> so "%E" still prints the suffix but "% E" does not.  I did this to
> preserve the existing output but I think it would be nicer to avoid
> printing the suffix with %E and treat (for instance) the pound sign
> as a request to add the suffix.  I have tested the attached patch
> but not the alternative.

I think printing the suffixes is a relic of %E being used to print full 
expressions.

It's established by now that printing expressions reconstructed from trees 
is a bad idea; we can get better results by having precise location ranges 
and underlining the relevant part of the source.  So if we could make sure 
nowhere is trying the use %E (or %qE, etc.) with expressions that might 
not be constants, where the type might be relevant, then we'd have 
confidence that stopping printing the suffix is safe.  But given the low 
quality of the reconstructed expressions, it's probably safe anyway.

(Most %qE uses are for identifiers not expressions.  If we give 
identifiers a different static type from "tree" - and certainly there 
isn't much reason for them to have the same type as expressions - then 
we'll need to change the format for either identifiers or expressions.)

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
joseph@codesourcery.com