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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.bugs.4bsd
Subject: Re: bug in lint
Message-ID: <2305@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 13-Feb-85 20:25:49 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.2305
Posted: Wed Feb 13 20:25:49 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Feb-85 06:53:04 EST
References: <376@harvard.ARPA> <466@rlgvax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Rand Corp., Santa Monica
Lines: 25

I've seen LINT or PCC dump core on a number of occasions, although in
all cases the program being processed was incorrect and error messages
were printed before the dump occured.  Fixing the error that caused
the error message(s) also eliminated the core dump.  Thus in and of
itself the problem isn't much more than a nuisance.

On the other hand, the ``bad initialization'' error message is a good
example of the often cryptic (and in this case incorrect) error messages
that PCC emits.  In a word, error reporting in PCC is abysmal.

In this particular case, I suspect that the problem lies in how the
grammar handles ``old-fashioned initializations''; if instead of making
allowances for this by just issuing a warning the compiler *required*
an equal-sign before the initializer, the problem would likely go away.
In fact, I'd vote for such a change, and not force the grammar to allow
for the ``old-fashioned initialization'', except to flag it as an error.

Backwards-compatability isn't always a good idea, especially when it
involves something as trivial as this (and has such bad effects on
parsing).

Comments?

		-Ed Hall
		decvax!randvax!edhall