GNU bug report logs - #79192
json parsing error position reform

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Message #17 received at 79192 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Mattias Engdegård <mattias.engdegard <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 79192 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#79192: json parsing error position reform
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2025 18:32:34 +0200

7 aug. 2025 kl. 18.17 skrev Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>:

> How is providing helpful data about the locus
> of an error "useless"?

Sorry, I didn't intend to sound facetious. What I meant is that the line and column are not likely to help current or future users in any significant way:

- If anyone would need the point of error, it would almost certainly be as a position, not line and column.
- In the unlikely case that the line and column would be called for, they can easily be computed by the user.
- That computation would be done in Lisp, which is easier; ours would have to be in C.
- Line and column aren't universally well-defined (start at 0 or 1? How are columns defined? Tabs? Multibyte chars? Combining chars?). The user is better-placed to use a definition that suits the requirements.
- But so far, nobody seems to have a need the point of error in the first place.

Therefore it very much looks like gold-plating. In other words, we'd give a mistake in the first implementation an unwarranted life extension when we had a chance to drop it without consequences.

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