Re: How do I write directly to a memory address?

["Dmitry A. Kazakov" <mailbox@dmitry-kazakov.de>]

On Tue, 08 Feb 2011 22:41:35 +0100, Vinzent Hoefler wrote:

> Georg Bauhaus wrote:
> 
>> On 2/8/11 9:48 PM, Vinzent Hoefler wrote:
>>> Georg Bauhaus wrote:
>>>
>>>> I wish they were collected in some unbiased public wiki,
>>>> together with a kind of cost analysis, metaphorical or real,
>>>> of the observed effects. Wouldn't this be a nice addition
>>>> to the Style Guide? A chapter on Bug Avoidance Techniques (BAT)?.
>>>
>>> Look at MISRA-C to see what BAT does to C. And then again, look at
>>> Ada and compare how many of these rules could are applicable to Ada
>>> at all.
>>
>> I know ;-)  Suppose pclint -w4 were built into every C compiler.
>> What effects would this change likely have on program production?
>> The skeptic's view:
>>
>> - more annoyed programmers
>> - clever ways of working around compilers
>> - pride issues
> 
> Yes.
> 
> But potentially better programs, too.

Unfortunately not. The problem is that the C language was not designed in
order to be used at this level of scrutiny. It becomes extremely annoying
because many warnings are false negatives. It is a structural problem of C:
the number of false negatives cannot be reduced without increasing the
number of false positives. And this is not the compiler's problem only.
When you read C program you have to set your alarm level much lower than
for Ada. Because otherwise, you won't be able to understand the program at
all.

So as Ludovic put it, each time you read a C program you see a bug. I would
add: and *know* that there are dozen other bugs you just do not care to
look after.

> Of course, with Ada you can have all this for free (pun intended).

Ada has such problems as well:

   overriding function Foo return Bar;
   
   function Foo return Bar is
   begin
      raise Use_Error; -- This won't compile
   end No_Way;

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de