Re: Have you ever had a bug caused by...

[James Rogers <jimmaureenrogers@worldnet.att.net>]

Larry Kilgallen wrote:
> 
> In article <27085883.0110191714.784d3d25@posting.google.com>, mjsilva697@earthlink.net (Mike Silva) writes:
> > While discussing (er, pushing) Ada with some C-coding co-workers today
> > I asked a question to which I knew the answer (always the best kind!):
> >  "Have you ever had a bug caused by accessing off the end of an
> > array?"  Well, of course, they all had to say yes.  Then I started
> > thinking of other bugs that they would have to admit to, and which
> > wouldn't occur in Ada.  Nothing new here (Ada prevents many bugs...),
> > but I thought it would be fun and useful to develop a group list as an
> > Ada advocacy tool.  For example:
> >
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by accessing off the end of an array?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by an implicit type conversion?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by a variable getting set to a value
> > outside its designed range?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by different type sizes on different
> > platforms?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by mixing incompatible types?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by passing parameters of incorrect
> > types?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by passing parameters in an incorrect
> > order?
> >
> > Have you ever had a bug caused by different data structure ordering on
> > different platforms?
> >
> >
> > And so on.  It might also be nice to have a section of "Have you ever
> > wished you could..." questions.
> >
> > Anyway, such a list strikes me as a potentially useful piece of
> > advocacy, should anybody want to offer contributions.
> >
> > Mike
> 
> Have you ever had a bug caused by changing the list of parameters
> to a subroutine in many places, but missing one ?

Some more for the first section:

Have you ever had a bug caused by dereferencing a null pointer?

Have you ever had a bug caused by including a file more than once?

Have you ever had a bug caused by creating an object of an
incomplete forward declared type?

Have you ever had a bug caused by confusing two identifiers that
differed only in their case (i.e. count and Count)?

Have you ever had a bug caused by linking a file with identifiers
duplicating those in another file?

Have you ever had a bug caused by omitting a "break" in a
switch statement?



For the second section (for C and C++ users)

Have you ever wished you could specify several default function
parameter values and choose to override only one?

Have you ever wished you could call a function and pass
parameters in any order?

Have you ever wished you could define an array and be assured that
index bounds would be enforced?

Have you ever wished you could program threads for any system
without changing your code?

Have you ever wished you could efficiently define your own numeric
types?

Have you ever wished you could read and understand your own code
more than six months after creating it?

Have you ever wished you could define true multi-dimensional
arrays without overloading operators?

Have you ever wished you could define an array index beginning
at some value not 0 without wasting array space?

Have you ever wished you could print enumeration labels without
creating an array of strings or executing a switch statement?

Have you ever wished you could define two different enumerated
types in the same program where both types share some
enumeration labels?

Have you ever wished you could print numbers in binary without
creating your own function?

Have you ever wished you could compile your program to target the
Java Virtual Machine?

Have you ever wished you could execute virtual functions without
the use of a pointer or reference?

Have you ever wished you could distinguish between two virtual
functions based on their return type?


Jim Rogers
Colorado Springs, Colorado USA