colostomy

[Grant Edwards]

In article <8bs410$qsg$1 at nnrp1.deja.com>, dirckb at my-deja.com wrote:

>Seriously, deviance from what?

>A long time ago I used a C compiler on the DEC VAX that would
>issue this warning message: "missing semi-colon, assumed." and
>Keep Compiling!
>
>It was pretty impressive, a compiler actually trying to be
>helpful.

The problem is, they often seem to make the wrong guess when
trying to be "helpful" and you just end up with a huge cascade
of meaningless error and warning messages.

Since it only takes a fraction of a second to recompile any of
the source files I use, I don't see the advantage of trying to
continue parsing code after the first few errors.  I never fix
more than the first one or two before re-compiling anyway -- a
habit I developed while using "helpful" compilers.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  You can't hurt
                                  at               me!! I have an ASSUMABLE
                               visi.com            MORTGAGE!!