From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 17260 invoked by alias); 3 May 2005 21:14:01 -0000 Mailing-List: contact gdb-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: gdb-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 16528 invoked from network); 3 May 2005 21:13:42 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO sibelius.xs4all.nl) (82.92.89.47) by sourceware.org with SMTP; 3 May 2005 21:13:42 -0000 Received: from elgar.sibelius.xs4all.nl (root@elgar.sibelius.xs4all.nl [192.168.0.2]) by sibelius.xs4all.nl (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id j43LDPsp017793; Tue, 3 May 2005 23:13:26 +0200 (CEST) Received: from elgar.sibelius.xs4all.nl (kettenis@localhost.sibelius.xs4all.nl [127.0.0.1]) by elgar.sibelius.xs4all.nl (8.13.4/8.13.3) with ESMTP id j43LDPUG024449; Tue, 3 May 2005 23:13:25 +0200 (CEST) Received: (from kettenis@localhost) by elgar.sibelius.xs4all.nl (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id j43LDOlL013376; Tue, 3 May 2005 23:13:24 +0200 (CEST) Date: Tue, 03 May 2005 21:14:00 -0000 Message-Id: <200505032113.j43LDOlL013376@elgar.sibelius.xs4all.nl> From: Mark Kettenis To: drow@false.org CC: gdb@sourceware.org, cagney@gnu.org, eliz@gnu.org In-reply-to: <20050503202352.GA6424@nevyn.them.org> (message from Daniel Jacobowitz on Tue, 3 May 2005 16:23:52 -0400) Subject: Re: A case for `void *' for pointers to arbitrary (byte) buffers References: <42710E90.3030300@gnu.org> <200504281919.j3SJJKF1011501@elgar.sibelius.xs4all.nl> <42715EE8.5070704@gnu.org> <01c54c8a$Blat.v2.4$ffbe8140@zahav.net.il> <42753958.70109@gnu.org> <01c54e92$Blat.v2.4$5cf24460@zahav.net.il> <42755FD4.8000009@gnu.org> <01c54f4a$Blat.v2.4$a9fc8500@zahav.net.il> <42778DE6.1080106@gnu.org> <200505032013.j43KD1dD005239@elgar.sibelius.xs4all.nl> <20050503202352.GA6424@nevyn.them.org> X-SW-Source: 2005-05/txt/msg00042.txt.bz2 Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 16:23:52 -0400 From: Daniel Jacobowitz > Why not use `xxx_byte *' instead of `void *'? > --------------------------------------------- > > * It's nonstandard. Why do we need a nonstandard type if a perfectly > god standard type is available? > > * It doesn't really solve the issue. It only propagates the problem > one level up or down. Since `xxx_byte *' is nothing but a typedef > for `unsigned char *', someone calling a functions with `xxx_byte *' > as one of its arguments with a `char *' argument will suffer from > the warning that raised this entire issue; `void *' breaks the chain > immediately. I think that's a bad thing! For the same reason that we use -Werror: where possible, we can let GCC enforce consistency within our source base. Use of gdb_byte (as unsigned char) buys you the advantage that any other pointer type won't silently convert to it. Ah, but these are supposed to be opaque blobs of memory. If you want to use a standard type, play the necessary autoconf games to acquire stdint.h. Use uint8_t *. That's an interesting suggestion. It might take a few iterations to get that right though. Mark