Subject: Re: bug#34951: [PATCH] grep: a kwset matcher not work in a grep matcher

From: Jim Meyering <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2019 09:53:01 -0800

On Fri, Dec 13, 2019 at 4:08 AM <[email-masked]> wrote:
> [email-masked] write:
>
> > But I really don't want ptrdiff_t in the API.
>
> I see that Paul has made the change to the API over my objections.
>
> Jim --- do you have an opinion on this?

Hi Aharon,

I used to feel the way you do. However, given the way compilers and
static/dynamic analysis have evolved, I have come around to Paul's
point of view. It still feels "wrong" in some sense, but using the
signed type makes the code more robust, enabling automatic
detection/avoidance of more bugs than with unsigned types. Thus, a net
improvement.

Paul, can you point to a link that lists the benefits/tradeoffs? If I
had such a link handy, I would have provided it here.

Jim