Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc!jtc
From: jtc@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca (J.T. Conklin)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: FlexeLint - replacement for lint - any reviews?
Summary: I give FlexeLint high marks
Keywords: lint Gimpel FlexeLint
Message-ID: <1139@van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 3 Jan 91 16:38:08 GMT
References: <3424@anasaz.UUCP>
Organization: UniFax Communications Inc., Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 45

In article <3424@anasaz.UUCP> duane@anasaz.UUCP (Duane Morse) writes:
>I read a review of a lint replacement called FlexeLint from Gimpel
>Software, and am interested in reviews.  Ostensibly it would get
>around lint1's problem by growing dynamically (so says the literature),
>and it is supposed to help find errors which lint doesn't.  Are there
>any FlexeLint users out there who would care to comment on the product?

FlexeLint does have some compiled in defaults, but since its distributed
in shrouded source form you can increase them and re-compile when you run
up against those limits.  I've linted some _huge_ programs and never had
any problems.

I bought FlexeLint about 6 months after I converted to ANSI C, as the
lint I was using didn't understand function prototypes.  It has been
money well spent.

The thing I like about FlexeLint is that each of the 500+ error
messages can be turned off and on individually.  They even can be
tuned to be on or off depending on what function is being called.
For example:

	-esym(534,printf,fprintf,sprintf)

Tells lint not to bother telling me about the times I don't use the
return value of printf, fprintf, or sprintf.


Another nice thing it does is to check the arguments to printf and
scanf against its format specification.  This is very convienient, but
oftentimes I use functions that call vprintf for error messages, etc.
I have written Gimpel to suggest they implement the /* PRINTFLIKEn */
and /* SCANFLIKEn */ lint directives found in the SysV.4 make.


Another wart I just discovered (see a followup posting I made in
comp.unix.programmer) was that FlexeLint, like lint, does poor job
when trying to determine whether a variable hasnot been set before
used.  Fortunately, gcc -Wall catches it, but FlexeLint is so good
in all other respects, I expected better.


	--jtc

-- 
J.T. Conklin	jtc@wimsey.bc.ca, ...!{uunet,ubc-cs}!van-bc!jtc