Re: An interesting object lesson (Ada vs C)

[aaro@iki.fi (Aaro Koskinen)]

dewar@merv.cs.nyu.edu (Robert Dewar) writes:
> Recently during one of my classes (on microprocessor architecture, where
> I asked them to do tests on some particular aspect of MP performance), I
> received the message below from a student who really knows what he is
> doing, and got completely stumped, to the point, where, as you will see
> from the message, he was sure he had found a gcc or Pentium bug. These
> kind of dangers that come from using an untyped language waste a huge
> amount of time. Needless to say if the student had used Ada, he would
> have saved himself a lot of time.

Perhaps, however this error would have been detected by using correct
compiler options. Apparently, the student has not been taught how to
compile C programs with gcc, or he has been taught wrong...

This is a good example of badly chosen default options of a compiler
(or any other tool). I can't think of any good reason why compiler
should omit warnings, or allow the use of non-language extensions, or
omit run-time checks enforced by the language, unless the user
explicitly wants it.
-- 
Aaro Koskinen, aaro@iki.fi, http://www.iki.fi/aaro