On Mon, Feb 26, 2001 at 11:35:43AM -0800, Nathan Wiger wrote:
> Not too sure about the whole -w on by default thing. Really makes me
> nervous. All I keep thinking about is the crap that Java spits out every
> two lines. Makes stuff really look unpolished, and the warnings change
> based on the JVM platform and version you're running. In Perl, this
> would create problems if new warnings are introduced later. All of a
> sudden scripts that have been working correctly now start spitting out
> warnings, and either you or your client is terribly confused.
Well, this is just the "shut warnings off when you ship" philosophy.
Whether its removing -w from your programs before shipping or adding a
-q, same thing.
A friend of mine was talking about how old WWII era analog fire
computers, mechanical devices which calculated how much powder and at
what angle a ship's main guns must be fired at. They had a special
switch, "Battle Mode". In this mode, the computer would never stop.
It would ignore all errors and just keep cranking out numbers. It might
give wrong answers, it might melt down, but it would never stop. In
the middle of a fight, you don't want your fire computer to crash.
Asserts use this sort of philosophy, which is why they have an NDEBUG
flag which allows you to shut them off program-wide.
PERL_BATTLE_MODE environment variable anyone? ;)
--
Michael G. Schwern <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.pobox.com/~schwern/
That which stirs me, stirs everything.
-- Squonk Opera, "Spoon"
