Certain Changes We Don't Want to Make
11.8 Certain Changes We Don't Want to Make
This section lists changes that people frequently request, but which we do not make because we think GCC is better without them.
- Checking the number and type of arguments to a function which has an old-fashioned definition and no prototype.
Such a feature would work only occasionally—only for calls that appear in the same file as the called function, following the definition. The only way to check all calls reliably is to add a prototype for the function. But adding a prototype eliminates the motivation for this feature. So the feature is not worthwhile.
- Warning about using an expression whose type is signed as a shift count.
Shift count operands are probably signed more often than unsigned. Warning about this would cause far more annoyance than good.
- Warning about assigning a signed value to an unsigned variable.
Such assignments must be very co