The point of this warning is that there are certain cases of incompatible types that are less serious than others - namely, those where the only aspect of the type that is different is its signedness. Those get a more specific warning, which is given under more restrictive conditions.
I see. It means the warnings aren't based on the C definitions of signedness or compatibility but rather on our perception of the likely correctness of the code we've seen violate the constraints implied by the definitions. FWIW, I have no objection to treating the three character types as special as you suggest. But I also feel that -Wincompatible- pointer-types is more appropriate than -Wpointer-sign, not only for the reason stated in the bug but also because it more closely corresponds to the C definitions of the terms. Perhaps tweaking the patch by adding an option, say -Wincompatible-char, to make it possible to enable and disable the warning for the character types, would be an acceptable compromise. It would satisfy the user's request and avoid the potential fallout you and Marek are concerned about. Martin
