Re: failure due to compiler?

Peter L Flake <flake@elda.demon.co.uk> wrote:


>[Anyone got any insight into why in the world they made a non-deterministic
>compiler? -John]


Deterministic pseudo-random numbers might be useful for some algorithms.
Once you are using random numbers it is an easy mistake or misunderstanding
to use a non-constant seed (some implementations will invent a time-of-day
or process ID seed if you don't provide one).


I've encountered dozens of bugs in released compilers. Usually I find the
bug during development. I've had good luck with compiler upgrades. They
don't always work, but the failures tend to be catastrophic and once the
program is written it is much easier to distinguish compiler bugs from
program bugs.




--
        John Carr (jfc@mit.edu)
--

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