Re: [ping] Karel: Re: pull: hwclock 27 changes

[Sami Kerola <kerolasa@iki.fi>]

On Thu, 2 Feb 2017, J William Piggott wrote:

> Karel,
> I have some work to submit that applies on top of Sami's branch:
>
> git://github.com/kerolasa/lelux-utiliteetit.git hwclock-jwp-reviewed

Nice to hear.

> Outside of our ongoing discussion below regarding a 'technically
> unnecessary' cast, I think Sami's work is ready for you to consider it
> for committing. I would be interested in your thoughts on the cast.

I had a Friday conversation with my work colleagues and majority thought 
that 'unnecessary cast' is good thing, as explicit a cast is visual 
reminder of type change.

We did consider maintenance burden of these casts, but counter argument 
was found to be difficult to object. It is true that unnecessary casts 
cause unnecessary change when either function return value or storage unit 
changes - but such changes do not happen often. Therefore weight of visual 
reminder is heavier than an attempt to keep potential future diffs 
minimal.

With one thing everyone agreed, these sorts of little things should not 
get in way too much. In short cast or don't but do not get stuck with a 
detail like this. To be honest this is probably the best advice. While I 
would see these sorts of type change reminders I'm happy to rip them out 
if that is needed to move forward.

p.s. Branch hwclock-jwp-reviewed in my git is rebased on top of most 
recent origin/master.

-- 
Sami Kerola
http://www.iki.fi/kerolasa/