Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!usc!ucsd!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!xanthian From: xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Lattice/SAS C 5.10 HERE! Message-ID: <1990Aug26.225427.4594@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG> Date: 26 Aug 90 22:54:27 GMT References: <14874@shlump.nac.dec.com> Organization: SF Bay Public-Access Unix Lines: 45 barrett@meridn.enet.dec.com (Keith Barrett) writes: > xanthian@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Kent Paul Dolan) writes... >>So tell me, does it still do a no-warning, no guru, stone cold system >>crash, trashing Rad:, if you try to do/use a 30 line #define? >Standard C coding practice recommends that a define should fit in 1 line >of 80 characters; I think you got what you deserved. You're not the type >to sue a ladder company because the instructions did not state "don't >place the ladder in mud" and you did and fell, are you? :-) Heavens, if multiple line #defines are "broken", then most of Unix code is garbage; the backslash line continuation is there for a purpose. More important, is not whether my code is pretty or not, but whether Lattice C is bulletproof or not. In general, compilers process 100 buggy files for every one bug free file, so dying on buggy code is not acceptable behavior. A compiler should be able to eat any stream of bytes without dying; dropping dead based on user (code) input is a symptom of failing to check whether a process is safe before executing it, rather silly when you are expecting code errors in the imput, and are supposed to handle it without a hiccup. It is a standard test for a compiler to feed it random input to make sure it survives intact. Probably more important is to feed it a file that exceeds every known limitation of the compiler and assure that it handles each gracefully, mine among them. Trashing the system on any input is the compiler writer's error, and blaming it on the user is looking away from the problem. The proper analogy isn't with having a ladder fall over in mud, but with having it collapse when a 200kg housepainter uses it because the ladder designer couldn't imagine someone that size elevating himself off the ground, and built the ladder too wimpy to carry the load. Better yet, compare with Fredericks of Hollywood, who sell garb to make ladies feel seductive, but ignore the ladies most in need of their product, the ones wearing the 3X and 4X sizes, thus losing over half the market in this obese society. We rotten programmers are a much bigger market than the hypercompetent, and Lattice should target their compiler for our needs, not theirs. Kent, the man from xanth.