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From: scs@adam.mit.edu (Steve Summit)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Can lint help an ANSI-C programmer?
Message-ID: <1990May31.062727.27334@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 31 May 90 06:27:27 GMT
References: <6328.265D8157@puddle.fidonet.org> <1754@tkou02.enet.dec.com> <00937758.16FBE220@rigel.efd.lth.se>
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Reply-To: scs@adam.mit.edu (Steve Summit)
Organization: Thermal Technologies, Inc.
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In article <00937758.16FBE220@rigel.efd.lth.se> e89hse@rigel.efd.lth.se writes:
> I don't see what lint discovers that a C-compiler with prototypes can't
>discover...

Lint discovers function call mismatches automatically, while
compilers using ANSI prototypes can do so only if the programmer
has religiously supplied prototypes for all functions.  For me,
providing full prototypes (even with the aid of an automatic
prototype generator) is far more work than keeping function calls
correct by hand, and correcting the occasional problems that lint
detects.

                                            Steve Summit
                                            scs@adam.mit.edu