Re: [9fans] simplicity

["Russ Cox" <rsc@swtch.com>]

> i see two problems with this sort of indirection.  if i see NBBY
> in the code, i have to look up it's value.  NBBY doesn't mean anything
> to me.  this layer of mental gymnastics that makes the code hard
>  to read and understand.  on the other hand, 8 means something to me.
> 
> more importantly, it implies that the code would work with NBBY
> of 10 or 12.  (c standard says you can't have < 8 §5.2.4.2.1.)
> i'd bet there are many things in the code that depend on the sizeof
> a byte that don't reference NBBY.
> 
> so this define goes 0 fer 2.  it can't be changed and it is not informative.

8 can be a lot of things besides the number of bits in a byte
(the number of bytes in a double or vlong, for example).
if you're doing enough conversions between byte counts
and bit counts, then using NBBY makes it clear *why* you're
using an 8 there, which might help a lot.

in other contexts, it might not be worth the effort.

jumping all over a #define without seeing how or 
why it is being used is not productive.  nor interesting.
in fact i can't believe i'm writing this.  sorry.

russ