Re: failure due to compiler?

dave_sc@csl.sri.com (Dave Stringer-Calvert)
15 Jul 1996 11:45:13 -0400

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[15 later articles]
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From: dave_sc@csl.sri.com (Dave Stringer-Calvert)
Newsgroups: comp.compilers
Date: 15 Jul 1996 11:45:13 -0400
Organization: Computer Science Laboratory, SRI International
References: 96-07-041 96-07-056 96-07-064 96-07-079
Keywords: errors

Robert A Duff <bobduff@world.std.com> wrote:
>
>Yes, compilers have bugs. I've seen many. What would be more
>interesting (to me, anyway) would be cases where compiler bugs actually
>caused some real damage. E.g. so-and-so plane crashed because of a
>compiler bug, and killed so-and-so number of people. Or so-and-so
>company lost $100,000 because of a compiler bug. Or some such thing.
>


When I asked this question on the group, and other mailing lists
previously nobody could find an example of compiler bugs producing
any *real* damage -- just anecdotes of bugs found in testing.


This brings to mind the question why bother with formal analysis
of compilers (such a the TMDS group at York are doing - see
http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/tmds).


However, it is easy to see how so-and-so company can loose quantities
of money through compiler bugs, if they attempt to trace errors in
application code which aren't there.


Dave


----
Dave Stringer-Calvert MEng, International Fellow, Computer Science Laboratory,
SRI International, 333 Ravenswood Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025. (415) 859 6106


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