Re: "printf %d ''" should diagnose the empty string

[Martin D Kealey]

How about a counter-proposal: when not in POSIX mode, arguments that
correspond to numeric conversions in printf could be subject to normal
arithmetic evaluation, so that « printf %d '6*7' » will output “42”.

(Yes of course they should be subject to the single evaluation limit,
regardless of any shopt to the contrary.)

That would include evaluating an empty *expression* as zero.

-Martin