[FFmpeg-cvslog] r10500 - trunk/libavcodec/vc1.c

[The Wanderer]

Michael Niedermayer wrote:

> Hi
> 
> On Mon, Sep 17, 2007 at 02:01:24PM -0700, Mike Melanson wrote:
> 
>> The Wanderer wrote:

[inner parentheses in "((mquant == v->pq) ? v->halfpq : 0)"]

>>> They may not be necessary semantically, but I for one do not know
>>> operator precedence well enough to be able to tell at a glance
>>> whether the version without them would perform the ternary
>>> conditional before or after the equality comparison. The addition
>>> of the parentheses makes it plain, and does not hurt readability
>>> in the aesthetic sense IMO.

>> Thanks for articulating this better than I could. Aside from "*/+-"
>> I can never remember operator precedence rules (which I think
>> change subtly between different languages). That's why I like
>> parens around ops that deviate from the 4 basic math operators.
> 
> so you plan to write: a = (b + (c[5]));
> 
> instead of
> 
> a = b + c[5];
> 
> as that could be
> 
> ((a = b) + c)[5];
> 
> ?
> 
> ;)

For that matter, it could be

a = ((b + c)[5]);

which would be more likely, since having an array-reference statement
which does nothing with the referenced value doesn't make a whole lot of
sense. (The only thing I can think of you could do with it is test for
out-of-bounds values by triggering a segmentation fault, which does not
seem particularly useful. Then again, you could also disguise a simple
assignment that way in obfuscated code...)

Of course, no one was suggesting this, and no one sane would suggest it.
I think that Mike Melanson was simply not thinking of [] as an operator;
I'll admit that I do not think of it as one myself in ordinary activity.

I do (I believe) think of = as an operator, the assignment operator, but
because it is familiar from mathematics and it has a very distinct
purpose unlike that of any other operator I can think of, it is both
easy to remember that it has absolute top precedence - or at least, I
can't think of anything except parentheses and presumably curly braces
which override it - and easy to forget that it is in fact an operator.

-- 
       The Wanderer is aware that you were joking, yes

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.