Re: [git patches] IDE fixes

From: Linus Torvalds
Date: Wed May 23 2007 - 21:57:02 EST




On Thu, 24 May 2007, Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz wrote:
> diff --git a/drivers/ide/pci/serverworks.c b/drivers/ide/pci/serverworks.c
> index 6234f80..47bcd91 100644
> --- a/drivers/ide/pci/serverworks.c
> +++ b/drivers/ide/pci/serverworks.c
> @@ -173,7 +179,7 @@ dma_pio:
> ((dma_stat&(1<<(5+unit)))==(1<<(5+unit)))) {
> u8 dmaspeed = dma_timing;
>
> - dma_timing &= ~0xFF;
> + dma_timing &= ~0xFFU;

This is just crap.

The old code was _also_ crap, but the new code just is worse.

What's the point of this, really?

dma_timing is a 8-bit value, so the above is just a *really* stupid and
bad way of saying

dma_timing = 0;

and whoever wrote that code is just terminally confused.

I pulled, but that driver is CRAP. Please don't add new crap blindly like
that.

Andrew, that was your change, it appears. Tssk.

Please, we do NOT fix compiler warnings without understanding the code!
That's a sure way to just introduce _new_ bugs, rather than fix old ones.
So please, please, please, realize that the compiler is _stupid_, and
fixing warnings without understanding the code is bad.

In this case, anybody who actually spends 5 seconds looking at the code
should have realized that the warning is just another way of saying that
the author of the code was on some bad drugs, and the warnings WERE BETTER
OFF REMAINING! Because that code _should_ have warnings. Big fat warnings
about incompetence!

Linus
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