Walter:
> If you really want to be productive with this, rather than sitting back and
> thinking up imaginary problems, do things like peruse the bug database of a
> large open source project. Look for patterns of problems that might be headed
> off with language solutions.
A common bug in Linux kernel:
if(!state->card->
ac97_status&CENTER_LFE_ON)
val&=~DSP_BIND_CENTER_LFE;
The fix is to replace (!E & C) with (!(E & C)).
Currently D acts like C:
void main() {
uint x, y;
if (!x & y) {}
}
- 96 instances of this bug in Linux from 2.6.13 (August 2005) to v2.6.28
(December 2008).
- 58 instances of this bug in 2.6.20 (February 2007)
- 2 in Linux-next (October 10, 2009)
They have faced and reduced the number of such bugs using Coccinelle, see pages
8-9 here:
http://coccinelle.lip6.fr/papers/fosdem10.pdf
See you later,
bearophile
