On Monday, February 23, 2015 04:46:34 PM you wrote:
> > My philosopher as a free software author is this: The buck stops with
> > me. If my software screws up, it's my fault and my responsibility to
> > fix, regardless of the actual root cause is in code I wrote or a tool I
> > use.
> >
> > If I were having problems with two different compilers treating my code
> > two different ways, I'd #ifdef the hell out of it to kludge it back to
> > working order on both.
> >
> > But that's just me. I've seen a lot of free software authors say "hey,
> > it's not my fault, it's the ______ library or tool. Doesn't help the
> > user a heck of a lot.
> >
> > SteveT
>
> That's a fair point, in an overall sense, Steve. I'm afraid as a matter of
> practicality, I must disagree.
>
> Debugging on a compiler is a very specific skill-set. Asking someone who
> doesn't do that every day to fix what is probably a compiler bug is asking a
> lot - especially when you may have to venture into the realm of processor
> mnemonics and specific registers to fix the problem.
>
> In my opinion, that is especially relevant when dealing with ARM because
> there are so many makers of ARM processors with specific tweaks.
>
> T.J.


I realize I should have spoken more clearly and for that I apologize. I'll
endeavor to be clearer in the future.

What I was trying say is that, I agree that you should make every effort to
make sure your code works, ultimately you are somewhat hostage to the
compiler. The average programmer has no skills in that area, and they should
simply not make a greater mess by altering their design to accommodate someone
else's flaw. These "chains of flaws" go one for years. What is really scary is
that eventually people's code *depends* upon the flaw, and that - to me at
least - is unacceptable.


As a matter of personal pride, I refuse to "kludge" up my code to fix bugs in
other people's code. Readable code is "un-kludged" code.


If possible, I will hunt down the bug and fix it. If that is not possible, I
will either rewrite the code to not trigger the bug, or a patch will be placed
in a separate file to check for processor type.

Have a great day!
T.J.