Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!netsys!ames!lamaster
From: lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Hugh LaMaster)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Semantics (was Software Distribution)
Message-ID: <16147@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Date: 7 Oct 88 15:29:08 GMT
References: <634@eiger.iis.UUCP> <993@esunix.UUCP> <13889@mimsy.UUCP> <3481@cs.utexas.edu>
Reply-To: lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Hugh LaMaster)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 31

In article <3481@cs.utexas.edu> steveb@cs.utexas.edu (Steve Benz) writes:

>
>I would simply recommend that when vendors test their software, they
>turn on compiler switches which enable strict semantic checking
>(i.e. turn on stray pointer checking, index checking, 0-divide checking,
>negative root checking....)
>
>
>
>
>
An excellent practice.  There is a wide disparity among different vendor's
compilers with respect to the number of such switches.  Such switches are
very useful.

Another switch that I would like to see added to many compilers is one
found on Cray compilers: truncate.  This switch affects the code
generation phase and masks off the least significant bits of floating
point expressions to any desired significance.  You would be surprised
by how many errors this can catch; it is a very fast way for an engineer
or scientist to check that some change to a code hasn't affected the
stability of the results.



-- 
  Hugh LaMaster, m/s 233-9,  UUCP ames!lamaster
  NASA Ames Research Center  ARPA lamaster@ames.arc.nasa.gov
  Moffett Field, CA 94035     
  Phone:  (415)694-6117