Re: 13-m4-undivert-culprit.patch

[Gary V. Vaughan]

On Mon, Aug 20, 2001 at 06:08:43PM +0200, Akim Demaille wrote:
> 
> -    for (i = 1; i < argc; i++)
> -      {
> -     if (sscanf (M4ARG (i), "%d", &file) == 1)
> -       m4_insert_diversion (file);
> -     else if (no_gnu_extensions)
> -       M4ERROR ((warning_status, 0,
> -                 _("Non-numeric argument to %s"),
> -                 M4_TOKEN_DATA_TEXT (argv[0])));
> -     else
> -       {
> -         fp = m4_path_search (M4ARG (i), (char **)NULL);
> -         if (fp != NULL)
> -           {
> -             m4_insert_file (fp);
> -             fclose (fp);
> -           }
> -         else
> -           M4ERROR ((warning_status, errno,
> -                     _("Cannot undivert %s"), M4ARG (i)));
> -       }
> -      }
> +    {
> +      if (sscanf (M4ARG (1), "%d", &i) == 1)
> +     m4_insert_diversion (i);
> +      else if (no_gnu_extensions)
> +     m4_numeric_arg (argv[0], M4ARG (1), &i);
> +      else
> +     {
> +       FILE *fp = m4_path_search (M4ARG (1), (char **) NULL);
> +       if (fp != NULL)
> +         {
> +           m4_insert_file (fp);
> +           fclose (fp);
> +         }
> +       else
> +         M4ERROR ((warning_status, errno,
> +                   _("Cannot undivert %s"), M4ARG (1)));
> +     }
> +    }
> 
> I understand this can be unwelcome, please tell me.  But my experience
> with Autoconf gave me some simple rules, and one of the main
> conclusion is really `never compromise useful future extension of
> macro when it can be done straightforwardly with existing macros'.
> 
> And the 1-ary -> n-ary as a simple for-loop extension is the most
> attractive of these, IMHO, extremely useless extensions.  Beware of
> the dark side.

It took me a while to absorb this.  But, having dwelt on it for a
while, I agree with you.

Cheers,
        Gary.
-- 
  ())_. Gary V. Vaughan     gary@(oranda.demon.co.uk|gnu.org)
  ( '/  Research Scientist  http://www.oranda.demon.co.uk       ,_())____
  / )=  GNU Hacker          http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool  \'      `&
`(_~)_  Tech' Author        http://sources.redhat.com/autobook   =`---d__/