5 ms·

Writing Bug-Free C Code (1995)

58 points by kabouseng 12y ago

jkoudys 12y ago
Oh no! I've been going around telling my clients that you can only verify the existence of a bug, not their absolute absence, and that expected behaviour from years ago may not always match what you expect today. I hope none of them see this, and realize that I'm just too lazy to properly install the Windows debug kernel.
typedweb 12y ago
The title reminds me of a book I used to have years ago called 'Writing Bug Free C Code for Windows'. It was a great and not windows specific all all, covering object systems and all the nooks and crannies of the language. It was on par with some of the Lisp books I have regarding coverage of language features. Highly recommended for those interested in what you can do with C, but I'm sure it's impossible to find these days.
- copx 12y ago
  >The title reminds me of a book I used to have years ago called 'Writing Bug Free C Code for Windows'. Actually this is a link to that book..
  - typedweb 12y ago
    D'oh. Guess I should read the article sometimes before I comment :)
    - agumonkey 12y ago
      It might ease your mind knowing that your lisp mention made me mirror the webpages. Maybe if you read it beforehand you'd write a different comment, and I'd never read it myself.
ExpiredLink 12y ago
A classic but not well-known C resource.
- McUsr 12y ago
  Thanks a lot for the link. :)
  - ExpiredLink 12y ago
    Thanks to the OP.
unwind 12y ago
This is very old, so it isn't even aware of C99 which leads to lots of bogus suggestions and tips. Unless you know that you're going to be targeting truly ancient architectures/platforms, C99 really is the absolute minimum thing to be using these days when developing in C. It's 15 years old, it's not "new" or "non-standard" or "non-portable". Edit: Of course I'm aware that Visual Studio doesn't support C99, so I guess that sorts under "truly ancient architectures/platforms", then. For C development, Windows' flagship development environment is ancient. I know it's a great IDE, but it's not a great C compiler since it doesn't support the language any more.
- iveqy 12y ago
  People are still using Visual Studio as far as I know and Visual Studio isn't supporting C99, which makes C99 non-portable as long as Visual Studio is the default compiler for Windows and Windows beeing a big player.
  - Nursie 12y ago
    Is windows a big player for C development? If you want to code for windows there are better options. If you want to write C there are better options than VS.
    - Hobotron1 12y ago
      I like PellesC for playing around on my own projects, but have wondered if there's anyone using it for serious development. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelles_C http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelles_C http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/ http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/
- bitwize 12y ago
  Sorry, I don't know what planet you're living on but here in the real world of professional software development much of the world's software has to compile in Visual Studio -- which did not support C99 for years and still only partially supports it.
lighthawk 12y ago
"Variables should be named using Hungarian notation." Please note that this is from a different time and space, and that you should not apply such rules to every language.
krylon 12y ago
A couple of years back I worked as a programmer maintaining and extending a Windows application whose development had started in 1993. Besides teaching me to hate the Win32 API with vigor, that job and the application taught me - and motivated me to learn - a lot about C. About halfway through my time at that company, I came across this book, and I really liked it. Those were interestings times. ;-) We used OpenWatcom, whose debugger sucks really hard - basically, the moment your program crashes, you cannot inspect any of its state with the debugger, which pretty defeats the purpose of a debugger. The profiler sucked even harder. It was a PC-sampling profiler, and once the number of samples exceeded some magical value, it crashed, taking the program down with it. The compiler itself never gave me any problems, though, and it came with good documentation. It was also one of the few C compilers left that could target DOS. (Don't laugh, more recently I had to write a small program for DOS to set the serial port on a machine attached to an industrial control system to specific parameters.) Sorry for rambling, but this brought up some pleasant memories... :) I think the title is a bit strongly worded, but other than that it is a really good book. When writing large-ish applications in C, one has to develop strategies for dealing with some of C's problems, and even if you disagree with some of the author's suggestions (or, as somebody else pointed out, find them obsolete because of C's ongoing evolution), it gets you thinking about those issues. EDIT: Whether C is the right language for writing large-ish applications is a different issue, but in the early nineties, it was a relatively prudent choice, and if a program is popular/useful enough, someone has got to do the maintenance.
progmanal 12y ago
Wrapping library functions is very helpful when I am doing my own project. I understand the interface and can fix any misunderstandings I had when I used the standard functions. It is great. However, when I run across someone who helpfully wrapped the standard interfaces in the code I need to maintain. I want to burn him alive.
RDeckard 12y ago
"Error 403 - Forbidden" - anyone else getting that? Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20150327121925/http://www.duckware.com/bugfreec/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20150327121925/http://www.duckwa...

58 points by kabouseng 12y ago

Oh no! I've been going around telling my clients that you can only verify the existence of a bug, not their absolute absence, and that expected behaviour from years ago may not always match what you expect today. I hope none of them see this, and realize that I'm just too lazy to properly install the Windows debug kernel.

typedweb 12y ago

The title reminds me of a book I used to have years ago called 'Writing Bug Free C Code for Windows'. It was a great and not windows specific all all, covering object systems and all the nooks and crannies of the language. It was on par with some of the Lisp books I have regarding coverage of language features. Highly recommended for those interested in what you can do with C, but I'm sure it's impossible to find these days.

copx 12y ago
>The title reminds me of a book I used to have years ago called 'Writing Bug Free C Code for Windows'. Actually this is a link to that book..
- typedweb 12y ago
  D'oh. Guess I should read the article sometimes before I comment :)
  - agumonkey 12y ago
    It might ease your mind knowing that your lisp mention made me mirror the webpages. Maybe if you read it beforehand you'd write a different comment, and I'd never read it myself.

ExpiredLink 12y ago

A classic but not well-known C resource.

McUsr 12y ago
Thanks a lot for the link. :)
- ExpiredLink 12y ago
  Thanks to the OP.

unwind 12y ago

This is very old, so it isn't even aware of C99 which leads to lots of bogus suggestions and tips. Unless you know that you're going to be targeting truly ancient architectures/platforms, C99 really is the absolute minimum thing to be using these days when developing in C. It's 15 years old, it's not "new" or "non-standard" or "non-portable". Edit: Of course I'm aware that Visual Studio doesn't support C99, so I guess that sorts under "truly ancient architectures/platforms", then. For C development, Windows' flagship development environment is ancient. I know it's a great IDE, but it's not a great C compiler since it doesn't support the language any more.

iveqy 12y ago
People are still using Visual Studio as far as I know and Visual Studio isn't supporting C99, which makes C99 non-portable as long as Visual Studio is the default compiler for Windows and Windows beeing a big player.
- Nursie 12y ago
  Is windows a big player for C development? If you want to code for windows there are better options. If you want to write C there are better options than VS.
  - Hobotron1 12y ago
    I like PellesC for playing around on my own projects, but have wondered if there's anyone using it for serious development. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelles_C http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelles_C http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/ http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/
bitwize 12y ago
Sorry, I don't know what planet you're living on but here in the real world of professional software development much of the world's software has to compile in Visual Studio -- which did not support C99 for years and still only partially supports it.

lighthawk 12y ago

"Variables should be named using Hungarian notation." Please note that this is from a different time and space, and that you should not apply such rules to every language.

krylon 12y ago

A couple of years back I worked as a programmer maintaining and extending a Windows application whose development had started in 1993. Besides teaching me to hate the Win32 API with vigor, that job and the application taught me - and motivated me to learn - a lot about C. About halfway through my time at that company, I came across this book, and I really liked it. Those were interestings times. ;-) We used OpenWatcom, whose debugger sucks really hard - basically, the moment your program crashes, you cannot inspect any of its state with the debugger, which pretty defeats the purpose of a debugger. The profiler sucked even harder. It was a PC-sampling profiler, and once the number of samples exceeded some magical value, it crashed, taking the program down with it. The compiler itself never gave me any problems, though, and it came with good documentation. It was also one of the few C compilers left that could target DOS. (Don't laugh, more recently I had to write a small program for DOS to set the serial port on a machine attached to an industrial control system to specific parameters.) Sorry for rambling, but this brought up some pleasant memories... :) I think the title is a bit strongly worded, but other than that it is a really good book. When writing large-ish applications in C, one has to develop strategies for dealing with some of C's problems, and even if you disagree with some of the author's suggestions (or, as somebody else pointed out, find them obsolete because of C's ongoing evolution), it gets you thinking about those issues. EDIT: Whether C is the right language for writing large-ish applications is a different issue, but in the early nineties, it was a relatively prudent choice, and if a program is popular/useful enough, someone has got to do the maintenance.

progmanal 12y ago

Wrapping library functions is very helpful when I am doing my own project. I understand the interface and can fix any misunderstandings I had when I used the standard functions. It is great. However, when I run across someone who helpfully wrapped the standard interfaces in the code I need to maintain. I want to burn him alive.

RDeckard 12y ago

"Error 403 - Forbidden" - anyone else getting that? Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/20150327121925/http://www.duckware.com/bugfreec/index.html https://web.archive.org/web/20150327121925/http://www.duckwa...