Issue 161130.3: DW_FORM_data16 should be block class, not constant value class.

Author: Mark Wielaard
Champion:
Date submitted: 2016-11-30
Date revised:
Date closed:
Type: Improvement
Status: Rejected
DWARF Version: 5
Section 7.5.5, pg 212
Classifying DW_FORM_data16 as a constant value class and having to handle
a 128bit value everywhere a constant value class is allowed is somewhat 
inconvenient. Consumers do already handle such large values as block and 
both gdb and elfutils currently handle data16 as (constant size) block class.

In practice it seems to only impact DW_AT_const_value which can already 
take a constant or a block. Using it for other attributes doesn't really 
seem to make sense.

Suggest to rename to DW_FORM_data16_block and put it in the block class 
instead of the constant class.

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Rejected 1/3/2017.
Appears to be Quality of Implementation issue.