Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!cybvax0!amit
From: amit@cybvax0.UUCP (Amit Green)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: (Cybermation #2) Fixing error format strings in cfront
Message-ID: <1511@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: 6 Jan 88 03:16:29 GMT
Reply-To: amit@cybvax0.UUCP (Amit Green)
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 31

History:
	The error passing mechanism of cfront (the c++ front end) is very
	ingenious; is uses references to automatically constructed arguments
	to pass each one of the variable arguments.

	I have modified it to actually record the type of each of the
	passed arguments, and then compare it with the format string,
	for each argument; thus, this does run time type checking.

	As time goes by, I expect to find all the mismatched format
	strings with their arguemnts.

Code:
	table.c (from cfront 1.2.1) can be improved:
	table.c:1: /*ident	"@(#)cfront:src/table.c	1.6" */
	table.c:126: if (s==0) error('i',"%d->insert(0,%d)",this,k);

	norm.c (from cfront 1.2.1) can be improved:
	norm.c:1: /*ident	"@(#)cfront:src/norm.c	1.10" */
	norm.c:602:	error('i',"tname(%s %d %k)",string,this,base);

Suggested improvments:
	table.c:126: if (s==0) error('i',"%p->insert(0,%k)",this,k);
	norm.c:602:	error('i',"tname(%s %p %k)",string,this,base);

Note:
	The changes to the error handler, cannot be put here, as
	they incorporate extensive code changes.

				Amit Green
				{harvard,mit-eddie}!cybvax0!amit