Re: GNOME CVS: gnome-core martin

[Tim Janik <timj gtk org>]

On Mon, 13 Aug 2001, Maciej Stachowiak wrote:

> On 12Aug2001 10:45PM (-0400), Owen Taylor wrote:
> > 
> > The question is not really whether warnings stick around, but
> > whether bugs stick around.
> > 
> 
> In my experience at least 1/3 of warnings turn out to be actual bugs,
> though sometimes obscure ones. 
> 
> > -Werror:
> > 
> >  - Is somewhat of a wash for code quality. If you carefully review
> >    every warning, and carefully review your fixes, you probably
> >    make a net improvement. But careless squashing of warnings
> >    can easily introduce bugs, or put casts in the wrong place
> >    preventing the right fix from being made.
> 
> Hmm, I have seen fixing warnings fix bugs, but I've never seen a
> confirmed sighting of it inroducing a bug.

i remember both me an owen rejecting patches, at least partially,
because casts where added "to cure warnings" but actually just
masqueraded bad coding or real bugs. on my list that counts as
"bug introduction by 'fixing' a warning".

besides, most warnings that popup in my code, i fix immediately,
unless they point out a code portion that works for the moment but
definitely needs cleaning up later on. so i'm intentionally using/leaving
warnings as markers and -Werror defeats that purpose. so, no-go for
-Werror in projects i'm maintaining.

> 
>  - Maciej
> 

---
ciaoTJ