Sounds like when someone actually needs labs() or llabs()I think it's like it is just to be consistent with abs() in C,We actually had labs() before (few months ago), but since it was not used, and if it would it seemed better to just fix abs(), it was removed. So I think this is the appropriate way to go.
which also contains labs() and llabs().
they can submit a patch for however they would like to use it.
However they would like to use *abs()? What different ways are possible to take the arithmetic absolute value? I see record of many cases where dozens of authors have macros that then get collapsed to include files. So why not avoid that annoyance this time and -start- with it in the include files?
Can there even be any reason beyond unnecessary pedantics to have [l[l]]abs?