[Python-Dev] check for PyUnicode_READY look backwards (original) (raw)

Nick Coghlan ncoghlan at gmail.com
Thu Oct 6 23:40:20 CEST 2011

On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 4:47 PM, Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:

Amaury Forgeot d'Arc <amauryfa gmail.com> writes:

I'd prefer it was written :  if (PyUnicodeREADY(*filename) < 0) because "< 0" clearly indicates an error condition. Why not just have it return 0 on error? This would be more consistent with API functions that return "false" values like NULL and would just be if (!PyUnicodeREADY(s)) return NULL; in code.

Alas, that isn't the convention in C - courtesy of Unix, the convention is that for integer return codes, "0" means success. Yes, this is annoying, but violating it means you're not writing idiomatic C any more, you're trying to write Python-in-C.

Cheers, Nick.

-- Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia

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