Re: Style question: comparison between signed and unsigned?

Rogier Wolff (R.E.Wolff@et.tudelft.nl)
Thu, 25 Sep 1997 13:07:23 +0200 (METDST)

>
> Ulrich Drepper wrote:
> > For glibc we had to fix around >1000 files.
>
> That's impressive. And how many bugs did you discover in the process ?
>
> BTW, I agree that requiring many extra casts is a bad idea, because
> there's no way of telling if a cast is only intended to emphasize
> default semantics or if it should also twist the type compatibility.
>
> I also note that gcc occasionally gets into the habit of encouraging
> a certain syntax, e.g. the use of parentheses when mixing &&, ||,

I'm told (long time ago) that some compilers had the precedence rules
the wrong way around. So your software would behave wrong unexpectedly
when compiled with one of those.

> etc. (a good move, IMHO), or the use of parentheses around assignments
> in if, while, and such (annoying, IMHO).

My experience is that for me "it is a type" about half of the times.
I want the compiler to warn me about it, even if I get 90% false alerts.

Simply because it is more than 10 times harder to find a runtime bug than
a compiler warning (which gives you the line number and the source file).

Roger.

-- 
/* EMail: R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl   */ int main (int argc,char**argv){
/*   Tel: +31-15-2137459           */ if (*++argv&&!strcmp(*argv,"-advice")) 
/*   WWW: http://www.BitWizard.nl/ */   {printf("Don't Panic!\n");exit(42);}}