alt Hacker NewsIMHO readability is the absolute maximum paramount priority. Having the code interrupted by pacifiers makes the code more difficult to read. The warning is very visible when compiling. Let me argue, much more visible. Why? well, independent if my last change had something directly to do with that piece of code, I will see the warning. If I use some preprocessor magic, I will only see that if I directly work in that part of the code.
Again, IMHO the big problem is people think "warnings are ok, just warnings, can be ignored".
And just as anecdotal point "Sure, just throwing in compiler pacifiers willy-nilly to squelch the warnings is terrible." this is exactly what I have seen in real life, 100% of the time.
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But how do you distinguish between warnings intended by the author and warnings, that weren't, so they should be fixed?
Well said.
For some reason people stop thinking when it comes to warnings. Often it is the warning which gets one to rethink and refactor the code properly. If for whatever reason you want to live with the warning, comment the code appropriately, do not squelch blindly.