Hi Joel, > I use snprintf like this: > > field_width = snprintf (NULL, 0, " %d", max_value); > > Later I use field_width for a "%*d" conversion on all rows of the table. > I don't have much experience with mbswidth, but I don't think it can be > useful here.
Indeed, in your case it is de facto guaranteed that all table cells will be ASCII strings, so that strlen and mbswidth return the same value. > > This does not look very reusable: 80% of the programs don't use obstacks, > > 95% > > of the programs don't use 'dprintf', and 30% of the programs are LGPL and > > cannot use 'xvasprintf'. > > Forgetting licensing issues for a moment, what harm is there in including > a module you don't currently need? My guess was that the harm is none or > just some minor size increase. Is it worse than that? A certain number of gnulib users want to get the functionality they need, and not more. If gnulib copies into their module code that they deem not necessary - and for which we cannot explain the necessity - they start using words like "bloat" or "creeping dependencies". The harm that a module with too many dependencies does is that it does not increase gnulib's reputation with people who think this. > To find the full list of printf modules, I just used > "ls modules/*printf*". OK, that was easy enough. I guess most people do the same. > But I figured a project's list of modules would be > easier to check if it listed only 1 module in place of potentially 15 > *printf-posix modules. Moreover, if ever gnulib grows a new printf module > that a project needs (is there anything for wprintf yet?), the project's > maintainers wouldn't have to remember to add it. But if the project does not use the function? For example, the latest addition to the list of *printf functions was 'dprintf'. gnulib added support for this. But if your project does not use dprintf(), then you don't have to add it. Therefore tracking the list of all *printf functions is normally not useful. > Of course, Eric has shown me -DGNULIB_POSIXCHECK. I haven't explored it > extensively yet, but it seems to improve the situation. Yes, -DGNULIB_POSIXCHECK is a step towards finding the modules that your project needs. Bruno
