Comment by pseudohadamard

4 days ago

Pretty much any existing C compiler will also solve that problem by telling you that it's uninitialized.

20 comments

pseudohadamard

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WalterBright  3 days ago

I tried:

    int test()
    {
        int i;
        return i;
    }

using clang on my Mac mini, and:

    clang -c test.c

and it compiled without complaint.

  • pseudohadamard  3 days ago

    I always build with -Wall so I'm used to seeing the warning:

      > clang -Wall test.c
  test.c:4:16: warning: variable 'i' is uninitialized when used here [-Wuninitialized]
      4 |         return i;
        |                ^
  test.c:3:14: note: initialize the variable 'i' to silence this warning
      3 |         int i;
        |              ^
        |               = 0
  1 warning generated.

    For the oldest compiler I have access to, VC++ 6.0 from 1998:

      warning C4700: uninitialized local variable 'i' used

    • WalterBright  3 days ago

      The trouble with warnings is every compiler has a different set of warnings. It balkanizes the language. Many D features are the result of cherry picking warnings from various compilers and making them standard features.

      7 replies →

  • 1718627440  3 days ago

    C compilers without arguments start in 'trust me and shut up mode'. Seems to be sensible to me, because the 'I don't care about correctness' typically coincides with writing throwaway code, while you surely have the time to add compiler arguments when you set up the build system for an actual project.