RFC: Severity handling changes

[Niels Thykier <niels@thykier.net>]

Hi,

What do people think of making "pedantic" a true severity?  Currently it
is treated like a pseudo-severity half the time and leads to code like:

"""
    my $display;
    if ($severity eq 'pedantic') {
        $display = $self->{show_pedantic} ? 1 : 0;
    } elsif ($severity and $certainty) {
        $display = $self->{display_level}{$severity}{$certainty};
    } else {
        $display = 1;
    }
"""
[Lintian::Tags, sub displayed]

For the purpose of severity ordering (--display-level etc.) I would
insert it below wishlist (i.e. pedantic < wishlist < ...).

The second thing I would like to address is the need for checking the
presence of severity and certainty (also in the code above).  I presume
it is a left over from the time severity + certainty was introduced in
2008.  If I understand Russ's correctly[1], we finished that transition
in Dec 2009.

~Niels

[1] e21a76d1f27c74b028e816c55786f5e0b306a675