[bug #59030] some warnings [errors] still emitted with -Ww

[Ingo Schwarze]

Follow-up Comment #9, bug #59030 (project groff):

gbranden wrote:
> I'm fairly militant about diagnostic messages always including their
diagnostic level.

I like that, and i think it makes a lot of sense in multiple levels.

> I'm undecided as to whether it should. 

I think it is very good that -E implies -Ww.  By definition, errors are more
severe than warnings, so if the user doesn't even worry about errors, it is
eminently logical that they worry about warnings even less.  In the unusual
situation that somebody isn't interested in errors but wants to see particular
warning, they can say something like -E -w break.  So there is no missing
functionality and no surprising behaviour, unless i misunderstand.

> I'm sure there is some resistance to adding another warning category

Yes, i for example would appreciate keeping the number of categories small,
there are too many already for my taste.  I doubt that many users actually
used them.  Some certainly use -w all and/or -w w but i guess very few bother
configuring categories individually.  It is generally better to group messages
by severity (e.g. error, warning, style issue) than by topic.  Easier to use -
more likely to actually get used, and used productively.

> I'm inclined to leave this open for the time being as just 
> a documentation bug.

I would consider saying "-E implies -W w" (if that is indeed true) at the
appropriate place or places reasonable, unless it is already said there.

(As an aside, i agree that the warning categories are not just too many but
also somewhat ill-designed, but that isn't easy to fix, and even if one were
willing to break compat, overhauling a message system tends to require a lot
of work, and then there is still a risk that the new system might end up just
different and not much  better.)


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