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Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 23:25:31 -0800 (PST)
From: Matt Dillon <dillon@earth.backplane.com>
Message-Id: <200102250725.f1P7PVs12297@earth.backplane.com>
To: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org>
Cc: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>,
	Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.ORG>, Nick Sayer <nsayer@FreeBSD.ORG>,
	cvs-committers@FreeBSD.ORG, cvs-all@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: cvs commit: ports/astro/xglobe/files patch-random
References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0102251713590.5810-100000@besplex.bde.org> <200102250640.f1P6e0q11960@earth.backplane.com> <20010224225935.A769@mollari.cthul.hu>
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:This isn't true -- as it stands now, people are writing code which
:produces bad behaviour (e.g. the xglobe stars thing), or is insecure,
:because they are ignoring the documentation.  If we add a link-time
:warning it will probably catch more software writers, and the net
:result is positive.  It also points out instances of possibly bad
:software which FreeBSD porters and committers can address, again a
:positive change.  It wastes no-one's time except about 30 seconds of
:mine, which I was happy to give :-)

    All that adding a compile-time warning will do is annoy anyone trying
    to use the interface legitimately.  If you have a problem with a
    particular programmer's use of the interface, you should email that
    programmer.  We are not responsible for programmers who ignore 
    documentation.  While it is nice to have some warnings in there,
    there is a limit to what we should be doing to save the programmer
    from himself.  Many of these people aren't even using FreeBSD, so
    I really doubt that adding #warnings to our compilation environment
    will actually do what you think it will do, especially in regards
    to ports.

    People have gone overboard before... the strftime() warning, for
    example, is extremely annoying to me because I am using strftime()
    exactly the way it is documented to be used.  Some overzealous bozo
    decided the best way to warn everyone about Y2K was to cause the
    compiler to spew warnings out from 2-digit years formatted with
    strftime().  Bah.  What you are proposing here is something of the
    same ilk.

						-Matt


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