Re: [PATCH] shm: Remove silly double assignment

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Wed Jun 18 2008 - 06:07:28 EST



* Neil Horman <nhorman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > Not silly, really. Look:
> >
> > err = -ENOMEM;
> > if (expr1)
> > goto out;
> >
> > err = -ENOMEM;
> > if (expr2)
> > goto out;
> >
> > each of these two units is a separate, self-contained clause.
> > Removing the second assignment to `err' breaks that separation and
> > will make one clause undesirably dependent upon the other.
>
> yes, I see that keeping the second assignment lets you insert code in
> the middle without having up to update afterwards. I just don't think
> the redundant assignment is worth keeping just for that purpose.

cleanups is all about having familar, robust, predictable,
self-contained patterns of code that are easy to recognize, easy to
review and easy to keep working well.

In this case we've got an admittedly boundary case: removing the
technically redundant piece of code, while a valid cleanup at first
sight, makes the code less robust against future changes.

Ingo
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