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bug#21325: ls : feature request --width=zero
From: |
Aaron Davies |
Subject: |
bug#21325: ls : feature request --width=zero |
Date: |
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 13:19:18 -0400 |
On Oct 20, 2015, at 12:31 PM, Paul Eggert <address@hidden> wrote:
> Pádraig Brady wrote:
>
>> If a limit, then 0 naturally implies no limit. If a length, then 0 is
>> meaningless.
>
> It's not meaningless. It means length 0. Length -1 would be meaningless.
I'm entirely indifferent between using 0 and using -1, except to the extent
that there's any significant precedent for one over the other in existing tools.
> That being said, I'm tired of fighting this issue, so please feel free to go
> ahead and have 0 mean infinity to the user. But surely this can be done
> better than to have SIZE_MAX mean infinity internally. Just use 0 to mean
> infinity; that's less confusing, if that's what 0 means externally. In other
> words, use SIZE_MAX to stand only for itself, and use 0 to stand for infinity.
Yes, external consistency, internal consistency, and internal-external
consistency are all valuable.