[earenndil]

What if:

* Function order changes

* Prototype goes from int function(char * ); to int function(char * arg);

* Typedef is added so instead of int function(char* );, it's typedef char* str; int function(str);

[flukus]

Good points, the second one in particular I don't think could be fixed without a full parser. Function order changes could possibly be worked around by a formatter/linter that can reorder functions, at the risk of creating more issues. The last could be handled be passing the code through the preprocessor (the -E flag in gcc) first.

By this point it's probably gone beyond the "perfect is the enemy of good" threshold though.

[earenndil]

> The last could be handled be passing the code through the preprocessor (the -E flag in gcc) first

Nope, that only handles preprocessor directives (essentially, any line starting with '#'). Typedefs are handled by the parser.

[LukeShu]

That's still going to be way "less perfect" than diffing the output of `javap` or `godoc` or probably even the `help(module)` for a Python module.

The ability to diff APIs objectively gets better when we switch away from C header files.