Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...)

henry@zoo.toronto.edu
Wed, 20 Jun 90 04:07:52 GMT

          From comp.compilers

Related articles
[4 earlier articles]
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) larus@primost.cs.wisc.edu (1990-06-14)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) grover@brahmand.Eng.Sun.COM (1990-06-15)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) MERRIMAN@ccavax.camb.com (George Merriman -- CCA/NY) (1990-06-15)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) holub@violet.Berkeley.EDU (1990-06-15)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) pardo@june.cs.washington.edu (1990-06-15)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) barmar@Think.COM (1990-06-15)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) henry@zoo.toronto.edu (1990-06-20)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) dan@kfw.com (1990-06-20)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) chip@tct.uucp (1990-06-20)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) grunwald@foobar.Colorado.EDU (Dirk Grunwald) (1990-06-20)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) marti@inf.ethz.ch (1990-06-21)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) pardo@june.cs.washington.edu (1990-06-21)
Re: Unsafe Optimizations (formerly Compiler Design in C...) kend%mrloog.wr.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (Ken Dickey) (1990-06-21)
[2 later articles]
| List of all articles for this month |

Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 90 04:07:52 GMT
Organization: Compilers Central
Keywords: optimize, code, design, debug

>I don't want the language to protect me from myself -- after all, I'm a
>super-programmer and always write perfect code!:-) I need a fascist language
>to protect me from all the other bozos (past, present and future) my boss or
>client might hire to work on the code I am currently dealing with... It only
>takes one creative anarchist to screw up an application forever...


There will never be a programming language, or a compiler, that can protect
you from incompetent or amateur programmers. There is *no*, repeat *no*,
substitute for competence and professionalism, although bureaucrats (who
sometimes masquerade as language designers) keep complicating life by
futilely trying to invent one.


The one thing a fascist language really *can* accomplish is to protect
you from your own mistakes. That is indeed valuable; the trick is to
balance protection with utility, so you get a reasonably-safe tool, not
a completely-safe playpen.


                                                                        Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                                                henry@zoo.toronto.edu uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry
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