Re: floating point, was inlining + optimization = nuisance bugs

David Chase <chase@world.std.com> wrote:


[snip]


>Placing such an emphasis on testing seems a bit like admitting defeat
>(from the point of view of "good design" and "program proof"), but in
>my experience no amount of careful design and program proof (as if
>anyone proved significant programs correct, with the notable exception
>of the people at CLI) can protect you from the typical blizzard of
>typos and thinkos committed by people working in a hurry. If it isn't
>tested it doesn't work (no matter who designed it), and good testing
>is difficult and expensive even without gratuitous compiler-
>introduced variations.


          It might be your bug and it might be a compiler or run-time bug.
As if the end user will care when you forget to test.


          I recently found out that the messagebox() function in Microsoft
Visual FoxPro 5 silently truncates the string to be displayed when it
is longer than 512 characters. This "feature" isn't documented. The
way to find out about it is to do it. As I did. I hadn't tested this
after adjusting the message. Ouch!


Sincerely,


Gene Wirchenko

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