On 5/22/19 9:58 AM, Martin Sebor wrote: > On 5/22/19 6:27 AM, Richard Earnshaw (lists) wrote: >> On 22/05/2019 13:17, Bill Schmidt wrote: >>> On 5/22/19 5:19 AM, Richard Earnshaw (lists) wrote: >>>> On 21/05/2019 21:18, Bill Schmidt wrote: >>>>> On 5/21/19 11:47 AM, Martin Sebor wrote: >>>>>> The GCC coding style says to use "floating-point" as an adjective >>>>>> rather than "floating point." After enhancing the -Wformat-diag >>>>>> checker to detect this I found a bunch of uses of the latter, such >>>>>> as in: >>>>>> >>>>>> gcc/c/c-decl.c:10944 >>>>>> gcc/c/c-parser.c:9423, 9446, 9450, etc. >>>>>> gcc/convert.c:418, 422 >>>>>> gcc/cp/call.c:5070 >>>>>> gcc/cp/cvt.c:886 >>>>>> >>>>>> Before I fix them all and adjust the tests, I want to make sure >>>>>> we really want to follow this rule. The C standard uses both >>>>>> interchangeably. With just one exception, the C++ standard uses >>>>>> the hyphenated form. >>>>> The hyphenated form is correct English, so I certainly prefer it. :-) >>>>> >>>> It's not quite as simple as that. Hyphens should be used to make it >>>> clear what is the adjective and what is the noun: >>>> >>>> A floating-point number (hyphenated) is a number with a >>>> floating point (no hyphen). >>>> >>>> In the first case 'floating-point' is the adjective and qualifies >>>> number. In the second case 'floating' is the adjective and qualifies >>>> 'point'. >>>> >>>> But this is English, so there are probably some exceptions even then - >>>> but not in this case, I think. :-) >>> >>> English is always fun, agreed -- Martin cited the requirement to use >>> "floating-point" when it's used as an adjective, which is certainly >>> correct. >>> >>> There's a more interesting question around cavalier usage such as, >>> "We should use floating point." I would argue that there is an implied >>> noun "arithmetic" modified here, so this should also be hyphenated, >>> but I daresay there would be people on both sides of this one... >> >> I would argue that leaving out "arithmetic" is the error. :-) > > I agree. Unfortunately, there are a few cases like that among > the diagnostics that my script has already fixed: > > decimal floating point not supported > comparing floating point with %<==%> or %<!=%> is unsafe > ISO C does not support decimal floating point > > They probably should read > > decimal floating point types not supported > comparing floating-point values with %<==%> or %<!=%> is unsafe > ISO C does not support decimal floating point types
"decimal floating point types" does use "floating-point" to modify "types", so if you change those they should probably remain hyphenated. Technically the whole phrase "decimal floating point" modifies types together, and should be hyphenated together, but that just looks fussy and isn't common practice. None of those details are going to solve world hunger. :-) Thanks for fixing the general problem! For the edge cases, Richard's optimization looks better and better. :-P Bill > > I think they can be adjusted later if we think it's important, > after the checker is finalized and committed. I don't want to > complicate it too much by having to differentiate between > adjectives and nouns. The vast majority of the "floating point" > instances is has found are adjectives. > > Martin > > >>> This is why grammar police usually die from friendly fire. :-) >>> >> >> Sticking your head above the parapet is always fraught with danger :) >> >> >> R. >> >
