Re: Diagnostic bug?

From: John Skaller (skaller@maxtal.com.au)
Date: Fri Jul 30 1999 - 16:55:26 MET DST


Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.19990731005526.009886b0@mail.triode.net.au>
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 00:55:26 +1000
To: Hendrik Tews <tews@tcs.inf.tu-dresden.de>, caml-list@inria.fr
From: John Skaller <skaller@maxtal.com.au>
Subject: Re: Diagnostic bug?
In-Reply-To: <199907271534.RAA15742@ithif20.inf.tu-dresden.de>

At 17:34 27/07/99 +0200, Hendrik Tews wrote:
>Hi,
>
>as an answer to John I am just telling my heuristics to track
>down type errors:

[...]

>Therefore my strategy is to add type annotations at the first use
>of the problematic identifiers,

        Ah, thank you! This is a good rule.

>John Skaller writes:
>
> In my actual code, I got an error
> in a 5000 character expression, and it took three
> days to figure out the error wasn't in that expression
> at all.
>
>You are right, error reporting is one of the weak points of the
>ocaml system.

        Error reporting is a 'higher order' function
of a compiler: it is the weakest part of almost all
compilers. In fact, I find ocaml error reporting
quite reasonable compared with other systems.

        For example, just try tracking down errors in
complex template instantiations in C++.

-------------------------------------------------------
John Skaller email: skaller@maxtal.com.au
                http://www.maxtal.com.au/~skaller
                phone: 61-2-96600850
                snail: 10/1 Toxteth Rd, Glebe NSW 2037, Australia



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