Re: Parameters
Re: Parameters
- Subject: Re: Parameters
- From: Public Look <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 23:10:30 -0500
I am glad the list was able to help solve a problem.
On Nov 7, 2003, at 8:19 PM, John MacMullin wrote:
I am extremely grateful for the discussion, and the identification of
the ; as the problem.
Thank you.
John
Once, many years ago, I complained to a professor of mine that a
certain construct in a language or compiler was broken. I had been
developing software with other languages for a few years already, and
the behavior of the language I was learning seemed incomprehensible to
me. The professor kindly explained to me that languages/compilers used
by tens of thousands of programmers to develop millions upon millions
of lines of code were unlikely to have fundamental flaws in their
implementation. As it happened, the particular error I was complaining
about resulted in the compiler printing the message, "We're not in
Kansas anymore," in its error output. The Compiler was Janis[sp?] Ada
and the language was Ada 83. It turned out that the compiler printed
"We're not in Kansas anymore" whenever the internal state of the
compiler became inconsistent. Evidently, the compiler's implementers
hoped the particular output would never be produced. Also evidently,
they had never heard of assert() (or NSAssert()) macros which are
intended for verifying that things that should never happen don't
happen. To make a long story short, the professor eventually conceded
that I had identified a legitimate compiler bug. We reported it to the
vendor. The professor said that in every one of the fifteen years he
had been teaching, one or more students (usually sophomores ;)
complained that the reason their assignment didn't work was a compiler
bug, and I was the first one to be right.
In spite of having once been the exception that proves the rule, I have
ever since been reticent to complain about the behavior of a compiler
or language construct in spite of the fact that I am a self described
(and occasionally acclaimed) computer language design expert. When I
don't understand the behavior of a language or compiler, I am inclined
to ask for clarification of my misunderstanding or the rationale for a
certain feature or more examples rather than starting with an assertion
that I believe the language/compiler's vendor should change the way the
language/compiler works. But, hey... That's just me, and I have
benefitted from narrowly dodging egg on my face as a sophomoric
sophomore.
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| | >Parameters (From: John MacMullin <email@hidden>) |