[New-bugs-announce] [issue42660] _zoneinfo.c incorrectly checks bounds of `day` variable in calenderrule_new

[Paul Ganssle]

New submission from Paul Ganssle <p.ganssle at gmail.com>:

This is a code style issue — in https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/23614, a regression was deliberately introduced to satisfy an overzealous compiler. The `day` variable has logical bounds `0 <= day <= 6`. In the original code, both sides of this boundary condition were explicitly checked (since this logically documents the bounds of the variable).

Some compilers complain about checking `day < 0`, because `day` is an unsigned type. It is not an immutable fact that `day` will always be an unsigned type, and implicitly relying on this fact makes the code both less readable and more fragile. This was changed over my objections and despite the fact that I had a less fragile solution available that also satisfied the overzealous compiler.

In the short term, my preferred solution would be to add in a static assertion that `day` is an unsigned type — this does not have to work on every platform, it simply needs to serve as a notification to make the code less fragile and to document our assumptions to both readers and the compiler.

In the long term, I think we need a way to solve the problem that it is apparently not possible to disable any compiler warnings even if they don't apply to the situation!

----------
components: Library (Lib)
messages: 383180
nosy: p-ganssle
priority: normal
severity: normal
stage: needs patch
status: open
title: _zoneinfo.c incorrectly checks bounds of `day` variable in calenderrule_new
type: behavior
versions: Python 3.10, Python 3.9

_______________________________________
Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<https://bugs.python.org/issue42660>
_______________________________________