questions from using lint

[KW Heuer]

In article <592 at brl-smoke.ARPA> gwyn at BRL.ARPA (VLD/VMB) writes:
>> C is the only language that I can remember that has a separate
>> program (lint) to find and report compiler errors in source code.
>
>First, the errors detected are not COMPILER errors but CODING errors.
>Second, [examples of other languages]
>Third, "lint"ing is not necessary on every compilation.
>Fourth, on small systems ... [it's better than] complicated multi-pass.
>Fifth, "lint" is rather portable, [but cc] is inherently machine-dependent.

Moreover, because lint is an optional pass which doesn't produce code, it's
safe for it to be overly conservative and flag "errors" which might be okay.
For example, the "possible pointer alignment problem" which results from any
nontrivial cast of malloc().

Karl W. Z. Heuer (ihnp4!bentley!kwh), The Walking Lint