Re: report a programming error when trying to align on empty parent (issue 7533046)

[dak]

On 2013/03/21 08:04:42, janek wrote:

> So, you think that we shouldn't report any programming error in these
alignment
> funcitons since an empty extent doesn't prevent us from doing our job
(i.e.
> aligning)?

Well, with an empty extent it would appear our job of aligning _self_ is
already done before we even start.

> (i'm just asking to make sure that i understood you correctly)
> If so, i'll just delete all these error reports - fair enough for me.

For me the problem only starts once one tries aligning a non-empty
construct to an empty one.  For _that_ we need a coping strategy.

That strategy might in some cases warrant flagging an error, in other
cases it might warrant escalating to aligning on the empty construct's
parent instead.

I don't know the logic of the code and its uses, so this is basically my
unqualified gut feeling and nothing else.  Flagging and reporting a
"problem" without any user-visible consequences does not appear helpful
to me.  What is the user or programmer supposed to do?

Whether my characterization is accurate, I don't know either.  If it
isn't, function name and warning message could possibly be made more
informative.

https://codereview.appspot.com/7533046/