Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!uupsi!sunic!lth.se!E89HSE@rigel.efd.lth.se
From: e89hse@rigel.efd.lth.se
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Can lint help an ANSI-C programmer?
Message-ID: <00937758.16FBE220@rigel.efd.lth.se>
Date: 30 May 90 21:09:40 GMT
References: <6328.265D8157@puddle.fidonet.org>,<1754@tkou02.enet.dec.com>
Sender: newsuser@lth.se (LTH network news server)
Reply-To: e89hse@rigel.efd.lth.se
Organization: Lund Institute of Technology,Lund, Sweden
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In article <1754@tkou02.enet.dec.com>, diamond@tkou02.enet.dec.com (diamond@tkovoa) writes:
>In article <6328.265D8157@puddle.fidonet.org> cspw.quagga@p0.f4.n494.z5.fidonet.org (cspw quagga) writes:
>
>>I'm after some advice on lint:  I don't use it, and want to know whether
>>I should.
>
>You should.  The question, as you point out below, is whether you CAN.

 At least if you don't have prototypes...

>>3. Was the intention that ANSI C with prototypes/casts etc.  would remove the
>>   need for external checkers like lint?
>
>If prototypes and header files are used properly, then they can duplicate
>a little bit of lint's work.  The answer to this half-question might be
>5% yes and 95% no.  How do casts add any error checking?  In fact, they
>usually defeat error checking.

 I don't see what lint discovers that a C-compiler with prototypes can't
discover, except wrong external declarations like: hello[100], char *hello.

 Henrik Sandell