From: Linus Torvalds

Sent: 25 February 2024 17:14

On Sun, 25 Feb 2024 at 08:53, David Laight [off-list ref] wrote:

quoted

The expansions of min() and max() contain statement expressions so are
not valid for static intialisers.
min_const() and max_const() are expressions so can be used for static
initialisers.

I hate the name.

Picking name is always hard...

Naming shouldn't be about an implementation detail, particularly not
an esoteric one like the "C constant expression" rule. That can be
useful for some internal helper functions or macros, but not for
something that random people are supposed to USE.

Telling some random developer that inside an array size declaration or
a static initializer you need to use "max_const()" because it needs to
syntactically be a constant expression, and our regular "max()"
function isn't that, is just *horrid*.

No, please just use the traditional C model of just using ALL CAPS for
macro names that don't act like a function.

Yes, yes, that may end up requiring getting rid of some current users of

  #define MIN(a,b) ((a)<(b) ? (a):(b))

but dammit, we don't actually have _that_ many of them, and why should
we have random drivers doing that anyway?

I'll have a look at what is there.
It might take a three part patch though.
Unless you apply it as a tree-wide patch?

One option is to add as max_const(), then change any existing MAX()
to be max() or max_const() and then finally rename to MAX()?

	David

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