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Subject: Re: Division by zero
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Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:20:24 +1200
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Date: 2005-06-29T21:20:24+12:00
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"Robert A Duff" <bobduff@shell01.TheWorld.com> wrote in message
news:wccy88ugorw.fsf@shell01.TheWorld.com...

> 11.6(5) is all about run time effects.  If divide by zero were illegal
> (which means at compile time), then 11.6 would not apply.  11.6 is also
> (as you said) all about implementation permissions -- i.e. not
> portable.  I would hope a legality rule in this area would be portable.

OK, I don't want to get *too* deep into the language wars sort
of thing. My surprise was quite pragmatic - I was called in (as a
consultant) to investigate and fix a problem that led to actual program
crash in production. The reason for that crash, as it happened, was
division by zero in some obscure and rarely used part of the code.
Now, I would understand it if it was a variable which is generally
unsolvable. But a constant? At first I thought it must be a bug in this
particular compiler version. But since then I've had quite a few replies
stating that's how it should be. So I don't know anymore...