Re: flags types/names

Han-Wen Nienhuys [off-list ref] writes:

My questions:

* am I the only one who struggles with the different flavor of `flags` ?

Probably no.

* if no, what should be done about this? Maybe

  typedef unsigned int ref_flags;
  #define REF_IS_SYMREF 0x1
  char *refs_resolve_ref_unsafe(const char *refname, ref_flags *flags, ... );

or

  typedef enum ref_flags {
     REF_IS_SYMREF = 0x1,
  };
  char *refs_resolve_ref_unsafe(const char *refname, enum ref_flags
*flags, ... );

It is very good to use symbolic constants implemented either as C
preprocessor macros or enums, I would think.

However, I am not enthused to see typedefs; I've never seen multiple
typedefs of the same integral type did anything useful in C.  Perhaps
things are different in the C++ land, but we do not live there.

A somewhat related gripe is that some code uses `int flags` and other
code uses `unsigned flags`. It would be great to standardize this.

I agree.  Unless there is very compelling reason to single out the
topmost bit and treat it as special, a set of flag bits should be
"unsigned".