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From: ari@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ari Halberstadt)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: lint [but not really printf]
Summary: Common bug: see a good book
Keywords: semicolon, bugs, pitfalls
Message-ID: <14443@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 16 Jul 89 18:09:39 GMT
References: <328@tree.UUCP> <417@siswat.UUCP> <105@borabora.omni.com> <LIMES.89Jul12153110@ouroborous.wseng.sun.com>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: ari@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ari Halberstadt)
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 28

This is my first submission to this group. I hope I reply correctly.

For the past week or so, there's been this discussion about null statements
inserted by mistake after an if. It was suggested that lint be modified to
catch these errors. I would support this, but only as an extra option to
lint, not a default action, since I frequently use while and for loops with
null statements.

For myself, I rarely run into this bug. I simply type carefully, and
realize that such bugs usually creep in at 2AM.

An execellent book on the topic of bugs and pitfalls is:
-- Andrew Koenig, "C Traps and Pit Falls", Addison-Wesley, Reading,
Massachusetts (1989).

About the suggestion to type:
	if (expr) {
		stmt;
	}
I really DON'T like seeing this kind of use of parenthesis in code. But if
it works for some people, let them use it.


-- Ari Halberstadt



Ari Halberstadt: ari@dartmouth.edu