Comment by 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.

19 comments

WalterBright

Reply
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.

    • 1718627440  2 days ago

      > It balkanizes the language.

      Not really, as C has had even more diverse implementations per-standardization. I would say the situation is now, much less diverse under the rule of GCC and Clang. (Yeah MSVC also exists.)

      6 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.