Subject: Re: bug#11617: Don't use 'register'; these days it's not needed.

From: Stefan Monnier <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2012 09:06:42 -0400

>> While `register' has been unnecessary for a while
>> now, I don't see why it would hurt.
> It hurts because it wastes developers' time, and has done so
> for many years.

No it doesn't and hasn't.

>      /* If we use `register' here, gcc-4.0.2 on amd64 using
>        -DUSE_LISP_UNION_TYPE complains further down that we're getting the
>        address of `force'.  Go figure.  */

Right, compilers have bugs, and we sometimes bump into them.  If it's
not with "register" it's with something else.

> This stuff is all bogus and our lives would be a tiny bit simpler
> if it vanished.

In my world, the keyword "register" is just another kind of whitespace.
So just like I don't want to install a patch that "cleans up the
whitespace" I'd rather not install your patch.  OTOH, just like for
whitespace, it's perfectly fine for regular patches to remove "register"
in the code they touch.

        Stefan