Re: Catastrophic compiler errors

nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren)
10 Apr 2002 00:14:21 -0400

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Related articles
Catastrophic compiler errors mlacey@microsoft.com (Mark Lacey \[MSFT\]) (2002-04-06)
Re: Catastrophic compiler errors journeyman@compilerguru.com (2002-04-07)
Re: Catastrophic compiler errors nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (2002-04-10)
Re: Catastrophic compiler errors avergison@skynet.be (Andre Vergison) (2002-04-10)
Re: Catastrophic compiler errors shankarunni@earthlink.net (Shankar Unni) (2002-04-13)
Re: Catastrophic compiler errors joachim_d@gmx.de (Joachim Durchholz) (2002-04-16)
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From: nmm1@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nick Maclaren)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 10 Apr 2002 00:14:21 -0400
Organization: University of Cambridge, England
References: 02-04-035 02-04-058
Keywords: errors, practice
Posted-Date: 10 Apr 2002 00:14:21 EDT

journeyman <journeyman@compilerguru.com> wrote:
>On 6 Apr 2002 23:40:24 -0500, Mark Lacey \[MSFT\] <mlacey@microsoft.com> wrote:
>>I'm wondering if anybody can point me to any information regarding cases
>>where buggy compilers (in particular buggy optimizers & code generators)
>>caused a catastrophic failure of some kind.
>
>If anything as visible as the kind of examples listed ever happened,
>I'm certain it would have shown up on comp.risks. ...


I should be extremely surprised if some such bugs had not been
involved, but catastrophic errors are usually the result of a
combination of many failures. After all, a GOOD safety-critical
design has interlocking checks, balances, fail-safe traps and all
that.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England.
Email: nmm1@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679

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