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From: "Randy Brukardt" <randy@rrsoftware.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Simple loop with a strange output
Date: Thu, 23 May 2013 16:34:47 -0500
Organization: Jacob Sparre Andersen Research & Innovation
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Date: 2013-05-23T16:34:47-05:00
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"Simon Wright" <simon@pushface.org> wrote in message 
news:lyppwh8x9y.fsf@pushface.org...
> Luca Cappelletti <luca.cappelletti@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> do you know why the overflow checking is off by default?
>
> The explanation is here:
> http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gnat_ugn_unw/Controlling-Run_002dTime-Checks.html#index-g_t_0040option_007b_002dgnato_007d-_0028_0040command_007bgcc_007d_0029-595
>
> or here, if that link got broken: http://goo.gl/ffIjp

That's the official line, but I think if you asked most people at AdaCore 
today, they'd tell you that it was a mistake.

But mistakes like this one aren't really fixable, because of all of the 
existing code that would be at risk of breaking if they changed the default. 
(That code would technically be wrong, but I doubt that would be much 
consolation if it meant that the train refused to stop.)

This sort of thing is going to happen in any compiler that's been around a 
while. There are certainly defaults in Janus/Ada that I wouldn't make the 
default today, but breaking existing projects isn't really an option, so 
such changes hardly ever are made.

                                              Randy.