Re: [RFA]: BOOL coding standards (Was: Problem with +numberWithBool: ?)

[Helge Hess]

On 30.01.2004, at 18:11, Nicola Pero wrote:
> I think a BOOL variable should take the values 0 for NO and 1 for YES.
>
> Coding standards should recommend that all code writing or returning a
> BOOL always uses 0 for NO and 1 for YES, as everyone knows and agrees  
> on
> those values and their meanings.

OK, this time I checked ;-)
   
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ObjectiveC/ 
5objc_language_summary/chapter_10_section_3.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/ 
20001428/TPXREF102

Why do you think that YES evaluates to "1"? This is a completely  
arbitary choice, YES could as well be defined like -1 or 5 or 100.

I do not agree that YES always implies "1". And code which assumes  
this, is even more broken than the one which at least compares against  
the symbol YES.

> I don't have particular objections to change 'if ([this canDoThat] ==
> YES)' into 'if ([this canDoThat])', if we write clearly in the coding
> standards that this can be done only for methods returning a BOOL, and
> that everything else (pointers, integers, etc) must be compared against
> something.  So whenever you'd see 'if ([this doThat])' you know that  
> the
> result type must have been a BOOL since it's compared to nothing.

This sounds reasonable for me. While I still prefer "if(ptr)" quite a  
useful and not to weird shortcut.

Greets
  Helge
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