Comments on: A Word of Caution http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution Mac & Technology Writings by Daniel Jalkut Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:33:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Daniel Jalkut http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-1170 Daniel Jalkut Sat, 11 Mar 2006 23:10:07 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-1170 I use a variation on the "source tagging" technique suggested by Mike. For historical reasons, the tag I use is my initials surrounded by bullets: •DCJ•. This has the advantage of being absolutely impossible to be mistaken for anything else, but did manage to expose an <a href="http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/67/xcode-search-gone-mad" rel="nofollow">annoying bug</a> in Xcode. Of course it doesn't have the same "constant reminder" advantages of the #warn technique, but perhaps some a clever shell script could scan the sources and produce a reminder of all such items when a "Release" target is being built. I use a variation on the “source tagging” technique suggested by Mike. For historical reasons, the tag I use is my initials surrounded by bullets: •DCJ•. This has the advantage of being absolutely impossible to be mistaken for anything else, but did manage to expose an annoying bug in Xcode.

Of course it doesn’t have the same “constant reminder” advantages of the #warn technique, but perhaps some a clever shell script could scan the sources and produce a reminder of all such items when a “Release” target is being built.

]]> By: Mike http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-1162 Mike Sat, 11 Mar 2006 20:50:36 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-1162 Jamie - I suggest coming up with a convention for comments for TODOs, like "//TODO: remember to ..." and then using the 'Find in Project' command to keep track of them. That works for me, and got me off the habit of using #warning as well... Jamie – I suggest coming up with a convention for comments for TODOs, like “//TODO: remember to …” and then using the ‘Find in Project’ command to keep track of them. That works for me, and got me off the habit of using #warning as well…

]]> By: Jamie Kirkpatrick http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-1158 Jamie Kirkpatrick Sat, 11 Mar 2006 18:24:53 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-1158 I like the idea of -Werror, but unfortunately I rely on stuff such as ... "#warning remember to do something really important here when you get round to it". If someone can suggest a better way of doing that Ill flip the switch. I like the idea of -Werror, but unfortunately I rely on stuff such as …

“#warning remember to do something really important here when you get round to it”.

If someone can suggest a better way of doing that Ill flip the switch.

]]> By: Daniel Jalkut http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-956 Daniel Jalkut Wed, 22 Feb 2006 14:46:17 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-956 Thanks Rickla for the funny anecode and for the corrections. You've discovered my "sounds like dummy" weakness! :) Thanks Rickla for the funny anecode and for the corrections. You’ve discovered my “sounds like dummy” weakness! :)

]]> By: Rickla http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-955 Rickla Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:46:08 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-955 WARNING: EXTRANEOUS APOSTROPHES DETECTED! 1. it’s bacteria-busting attributes are proudly highlighted on the soap should be its bacteria-busting attributes are proudly highlighted on the soap 2. So when programmer’s come in from the storm of everyday warnings should be So when programmers come in from the storm of everyday warnings WARNING: EXTRANEOUS APOSTROPHES DETECTED!

1.
it’s bacteria-busting attributes are proudly highlighted on the soap
should be
its bacteria-busting attributes are proudly highlighted on the soap

2.
So when programmer’s come in from the storm of everyday warnings
should be
So when programmers come in from the storm of everyday warnings

]]> By: Rickla http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-954 Rickla Wed, 22 Feb 2006 06:40:51 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-954 Another desiccant anecdote:- A Japanese friend of mine when I was living in London gave me a packet of Japanese green tea. There was a tiny sachet inside the pack of tea with various cool symbols in Japanese. I assumed it was some kind of flavouring and added it to the tea and served it up to all my friends. The tea tasted disgusting (ultra-bitter), but we just assumed that it was an acquired taste and drank several cups each. The Japanese friend told us afterwards what the pack was and I never made the same mistake again. Another desiccant anecdote:- A Japanese friend of mine when I was living in London gave me a packet of Japanese green tea. There was a tiny sachet inside the pack of tea with various cool symbols in Japanese. I assumed it was some kind of flavouring and added it to the tea and served it up to all my friends. The tea tasted disgusting (ultra-bitter), but we just assumed that it was an acquired taste and drank several cups each. The Japanese friend told us afterwards what the pack was and I never made the same mistake again.

]]> By: iSee http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-946 iSee Tue, 21 Feb 2006 11:49:16 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-946 Hi, I do agree, but also _some_ compiler warnings are plain stupid. The Compiler we use at work, gives warnings for unused routines (dead code) and worse, routines that will not return control (error routines where you just want to give up and exit). The SQL plugin warns on DELETE without WHERE condition. The first two are often used for included error-handling-code, the last is the way to go for reused temporary tables. The first two can be worked around (but the resulting code is ugly) and the latter forces you to occasionally check the full compiler output, if anything serious has happened. Anyway you are right, but interactive compilers would be much nicer in any way. I think of something integrating with an editor (like SubEthaEdit) adding comments: "You know that case will fail if…" and you can say. "Yeah, I checked that, don't warn me again for this occurrence" Cheers, iSee Hi, I do agree, but also _some_ compiler warnings are plain stupid.
The Compiler we use at work, gives warnings for unused routines (dead code) and worse, routines that will not return control (error routines where you just want to give up and exit). The SQL plugin warns on DELETE without WHERE condition.
The first two are often used for included error-handling-code, the last is the way to go for reused temporary tables. The first two can be worked around (but the resulting code is ugly) and the latter forces you to occasionally check the full compiler output, if anything serious has happened.

Anyway you are right, but interactive compilers would be much nicer in any way. I think of something integrating with an editor (like SubEthaEdit) adding comments: “You know that case will fail if…” and you can say. “Yeah, I checked that, don’t warn me again for this occurrence”

Cheers, iSee

]]> By: Dominic Mitchell http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-739 Dominic Mitchell Thu, 02 Feb 2006 23:57:40 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-739 Hmmm, whilst I'm all in agreement with you about warnings, they're not that easy to eradicate if you don't understand them. I've recently been perplexed by some new warnings introduced to previously find code by gcc 4 about pointer-signedness. Sadly, I can't track down any helpful information about how to fix the damned thing. So for now, it stays that way, until my knowledge increases... But it sure does irritate me knowing that warning is sitting there! Hmmm, whilst I’m all in agreement with you about warnings, they’re not that easy to eradicate if you don’t understand them. I’ve recently been perplexed by some new warnings introduced to previously find code by gcc 4 about pointer-signedness. Sadly, I can’t track down any helpful information about how to fix the damned thing. So for now, it stays that way, until my knowledge increases… But it sure does irritate me knowing that warning is sitting there!

]]> By: Daniel Jalkut http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-735 Daniel Jalkut Thu, 02 Feb 2006 14:46:27 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-735 I'm really sad to hear about people actually eating silica gel packs. Matt: I absolutely disagree about ignoring "some warnings." It's a major part of my complaint - once you ignore a single warning it becomes a slipperly slope and unarguably evil warnings will slip in. For the example you cite, the warning from gcc is "warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value." And it's great advice. How do you fix it? Just follow the advice. You end up with "if ((i=1)){};" which looks kind of goofy, but you know what? You're doing something goofy. :) So you put the double-parens in to a) quiet the compiler and b) remind yourself later that you meant to do something goofy there. Do whatever it takes to quiet the compiler! Or you won't be able to tell when it's not crying wolf. In the worst case scenario, I would even suggest turning off particular warnings so that at least you can see when your code goes from quiet to noisy to for the particular set of enabled warnings. Looks like visitor 32,768 came while I was sleeping. Alas! I should probably take that line out anyway - it came with a plugin I put it in when I started the blog and I'm not sure how accurate it is. If you have ideas for how to fix the "Enable live preview" checkbox width, please comment on <a href="http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/94/live-preview-or-die" rel="nofollow">on this entry.</a> Thanks! I’m really sad to hear about people actually eating silica gel packs.

Matt: I absolutely disagree about ignoring “some warnings.” It’s a major part of my complaint – once you ignore a single warning it becomes a slipperly slope and unarguably evil warnings will slip in.

For the example you cite, the warning from gcc is “warning: suggest parentheses around assignment used as truth value.” And it’s great advice. How do you fix it? Just follow the advice. You end up with “if ((i=1)){};” which looks kind of goofy, but you know what? You’re doing something goofy. :) So you put the double-parens in to a) quiet the compiler and b) remind yourself later that you meant to do something goofy there.

Do whatever it takes to quiet the compiler! Or you won’t be able to tell when it’s not crying wolf. In the worst case scenario, I would even suggest turning off particular warnings so that at least you can see when your code goes from quiet to noisy to for the particular set of enabled warnings.

Looks like visitor 32,768 came while I was sleeping. Alas! I should probably take that line out anyway – it came with a plugin I put it in when I started the blog and I’m not sure how accurate it is.

If you have ideas for how to fix the “Enable live preview” checkbox width, please comment on on this entry. Thanks!

]]> By: Jon Hendry http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution/comment-page-1#comment-734 Jon Hendry Thu, 02 Feb 2006 13:50:12 +0000 http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/95/a-word-of-caution#comment-734 Then there's the mysterious warning on Preparation H, cautioning people not to use it if they're on anti-depressants. Huh? Or, so I hear anyway. Then there’s the mysterious warning on Preparation H, cautioning people not to use it if they’re on anti-depressants. Huh?

Or, so I hear anyway.

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