From: jlm@ugcs.caltech.edu (J. L. Mandelson)
Newsgroups: alt.humor.best-of-usenet
Subject: [comp.lang.c] Re: Turning the compiler warnings on
Date: 24 Nov 1997 12:31:44 +0100

Subject: Re: Turning the compiler warnings on 
From:         user923005@aol.com (User923005)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c

Tim posed a question:
>How common is it for C programmers to turn on most or all of the compiler
>warnings during the development phase?
I have no idea, but I not only turn on all the warnings, I also run lint
 against the source which typically churns out 5 times the volume of error
 messages that compilers do on their maximum setting.

>The reason I ask is that when I get code from other people I often get
>pages of warnings when I compile it with the warnings on.  Many of these
>are pretty dangerous looking ones, such as not returning anything from
>a non-void function or using uninitialized variables.
Well it's a good thing you found them then, those ARE dangerous errors.  If you
 see a warning message, ANY warning message, read it and understand it.  If you
 are not ABSOLUTELY sure that the warning can be ignored, don't ignore it. 
 They are called warnings for a reason.  They WARN you when you are about to do
 something stupid.  Turning warnings off is only for the terminally lazy who
 are at the same time incompetent in their block-headed stupor which passes for
 idocy but is not really even that bright.  After a while you can recognize
 spurious warnings.  But if you are sure they are spurious, you might put in
 some assert() statements [you are asserting that they are not going to happen,
 after all].  Then when the assertions fail, you can find out that you were
 wong about being right about the messages being wrong.

Do not turn warnings down.  Turn them up.  Crank the knob up until it snaps off
 permanently in your hand.  Then throw it away in a hole.  Tear up the map to
 the location of the hole.

I'm at home, so I say anything I please.