Re: [bug-diffutils] [PATCH 2/3] portability: declare variables first in blocks

[Jim Meyering]

Peter Rosin wrote:
> * src/dir.c (diff_dirs): Declare 'v1' at the top of the block.
> (find_dir_file_pathname): Likewise for 'p'.
> * src/io.c (find_and_hash_each_line): Likewise for 'repetitions'.

Hi Peter,

I find that such patches hurt readability and maintainability and are
nearly impossible to justify these days.  If they are indeed required
for MSVC, I would prefer to maintain a separate c99-to-c89.diff patch
file that is applied (even manually) by those who need it.

I did that for coreutils for a long time, but stopped a few years ago
because so few people appeared to be using it.  There, I even had a
"make check" rule that would ensure the .diff file applied cleanly.

Would you be interested in maintaining such changes for MSVC?  If so,
please document the version of the compiler so that we will know if/when
it is likely to be no longer relevant.