args / description mismatch in list-effects.h?

[HermannD]

As it apparently works, I'm sure my confusion is due to some misunderstanding on my part. However, out of curiosity, I would like to clear this up: When reading list-effects.h I noticed that, just as I would expect from

 * args: how many arguments the description takes
[…]
 * description: text of description

that the value in the args column usually matches up to the number of c-format-specifiers (%s, %d) in the description column. But not for some effects, where args was 2, but there were only one or zero %-signs in the description:

2  	MON_HEAL_HP
2 % 	CURE
2 % 	RESTORE_STAT
2 % 	DRAIN_STAT
2 % 	LOSE_RANDOM_STAT
2 % 	GAIN_STAT
2 % 	PROJECT_LOS
2 % 	PROJECT_LOS_AWARE

So, what is the actual meaning of the args column?

[Nick]

You understand perfectly, and those numbers in the args column are indeed wrong. The secret information is that the args column is not used in the code - I put it in originally in case I needed to use it, but in the end I didn't need to.

So the numbers are wrong, but it doesn't matter.

[HermannD]

Ah well, that was a possibility I briefly considered. Still kinda anticlimactic. I sent you a pull request on GitHub to sort that out anyway. A change only affecting unused data is guaranteed not to break anything and I like predetermined success. (=