Re: compiler bugs

jgd@cix.compulink.co.uk wrote:
> SidTouati@inria.fr (Sid Touati) wrote:


>> How can a simple programmer detect a bug in a compiler ? is there some
>> well known verification techniques ?


> If there is, I don't know it.


Best is to find the smallest program that demonstrates the bug, and
that you can verify satisfies the appropriate language standard.


> Compiler writers generally test their compilers quite hard - there
> are various test suites of source code available, and all serious
> compiler writing organisations will develop test sets of their own
> and expand them as they fix bugs - but there is no simple and
> all-embracing method.


I can only think of a few that I have seen over the years, that I
could reduce down and demonstrate with a small program. One was a C
compiler that miscompiled x++ in the case where x was (double). While
legal, presumably it didn't come up in the testing that was done. (If
I remember it right, it compiled as ++x.) I have somewhat of a
tendency to try things that I know are supposed to work, but are less
obvious than others.


-- glen

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