On Tue, May 21, 2024 at 03:02:29PM -0400, Taylor Blau wrote: > Future commits will want to parse a floating point value from > configuration, but we have no way to parse such a value prior to this > patch. > > The core of the routine is implemented in git_parse_float(). Unlike > git_parse_unsigned() and git_parse_signed(), however, the function > implemented here only works on type "float", and not related types like > "double", or "long double". > > This is because "double" and "long double" use different functions to > convert from ASCII strings to floating point values (strtod() and > strtold(), respectively). Likewise, there is no pointer type that can > assign to any of these values (except for "void *"), so the only way to > define this trio of functions would be with a macro expansion that is > parameterized over the floating point type and conversion function. I agree it doesn't make sense to support both. But if we have to choose between the two, should we just use "double"? I doubt you need the extra precision for your case, but I also doubt that the speed/storage benefits of "float" would matter. And support for "float" in C is kind of weird. There is no "float" specifier for printf. And according to my copy of strtof(3), until C99 we only had strtod()! Regarding using non-integers at all, I do wonder how much we need them. We've usually stuck to integers in other spots, even if it means a sort of pseudo-fixed-point (e.g., rename scores). Looking ahead, you're using these for the power-series knobs. I guess it would be pretty confusing to try to force integers there. I dunno. Not really an objection, but I just wonder if it was something you considered. -Peff
