On Wednesday, 22 October 2014 at 21:10:06 UTC, Walter Bright
wrote:
I don't want deliberately written debug code to produce
needling warnings.
You should have an overriding option on the command line to turn
off all debugging. Having debug statements in release code is a
no-go.
The Boy Who Cried Wolf comes to mind. The feature provides for
a valid use case, one that is pretty hard to do any other way.
Such warnings should go into a separate linting tool.
I think warnings built into the compiler is a good feature for
catching common mistakes. I use it often and find it much more
attractive than lint, which I would only use if stuck on a bug.
It is also GREAT for NEW USERS to have a "-pedantic", "-Wall" and
even an "-idiomatic" option built into the compiler.
Arguments against two binaries:
- Newbies will never user lint and they NEED heavy-duty warnings.
- There is zero advantage to having two binaries for the end user.
- Having two binaries means that IDEs will only bother to support
the compiler.
- It is slower. Having two binaries means that you have to make
two passes, first lint then compiler.
- A linting tool cannot keep pace with the compiler. If devs
report a feature as a bug, it is candidate for builtin warning.
- Not providing helpful warning options makes the compiler look
unfinished and of low quality. Without developers will blame the
compiler devs for lost time, not themselves.
Arguments for two binaries:
- It is easier for the implementor.
- Too early to add warnings to dmd since the language will change
a lot.
