public inbox for linux-man@vger.kernel.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: "Stefan Kanthak" <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de>
To: "Jakub Wilk" <jwilk@jwilk.net>
Cc: <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>, <alx.manpages@gmail.com>,
	<linux-man@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: wcschr(3): add special case for  NUL, as in strchr(3)
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2021 20:41:34 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <F7B7DAEFD32949CD810BFC567ACA7B70@H270> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20210712160906.yfb4etzsylmzulox@jwilk.net>

"Jakub Wilk" wrote:

>* Stefan Kanthak <stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de>, 2021-07-12, 11:37:
>>JFTR: to avoid any possible confusion of "null byte" alias NUL with the 
>>"null pointer" alias NULL (C macro) or nullptr (C++), "null byte" 
>>should be replaced with "NUL byte"!
> 
> "NUL byte" looks like a typo for "NULL byte", so if anything, it makes 
> the potential for confusion greater.
> 
> Anyway, "null byte" is the preferred term in the man-pages style guide; 
> see the "NULL, NUL, null pointer, and null character" subsection in 
> man-pages(7).

Despite the statement

| Avoid also the terms "zero byte" and "null character".

the heading of said subsection itself but says "null character" instead
of the preferred "null byte"!

JFTR: the search function on <https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/index.html>
      gives 21 matches for "zero byte", 46 matches for "null character",
      and 146 matches for "null byte", i.e. the preferred term is not used
      in 1 of 3 cases.

And despite the statement

| The preferred term for the pointer is "null pointer" or simply
| "NULL"; avoid writing "NULL pointer".

plus a changelog entry (for version 3.56)

| Various pages
|    Michael Kerrisk
|        Global fix of "NULL pointer"
|            Change "NULL pointer" to "NULL" or null pointer".
|            POSIX uses the term "null pointer", not "NULL pointer".

43 pages still contain "NULL pointer", while 197 pages say "null pointer".

There's plenty room for improvement!

Stefan

  reply	other threads:[~2021-07-12 18:44 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-07-12  9:37 wcschr(3): add special case for NUL, as in strchr(3) Stefan Kanthak
2021-07-12 16:09 ` Jakub Wilk
2021-07-12 18:41   ` Stefan Kanthak [this message]
2021-08-10  6:40     ` Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=F7B7DAEFD32949CD810BFC567ACA7B70@H270 \
    --to=stefan.kanthak@nexgo.de \
    --cc=alx.manpages@gmail.com \
    --cc=jwilk@jwilk.net \
    --cc=linux-man@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=mtk.manpages@gmail.com \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox