From: Steven Jenkins <steven.jenkins@...>
Date: 2004-12-16T15:19:07+09:00
Subject: Re: [BUG] unknown node type 0 - SERIOUS ENOUGH TO MIGRATE AWAY FROM RUBY?

Peter Hickman wrote:
> The problem is that if you cannot reproduce the bug on demand then how 
> on earth is anyone going to see what is happening so that they can fix 
> it and how are they going to be able to test that their fix has indeed 
> worked. Without a clue as to how the bug is generated then what exactly 
> do you expect people to do?

Andrew didn't say he couldn't reproduce it.

> The problem can only be addressed if you can show it to someone, thus 
> "Give a small code example reproducing the problem"

Twenty years ago, I fixed a bug in a data acquisition system caused by 
inappropriate use of a signed integer as a buffer pointer (PDP-11 
assembler code). The bug was triggered only because the buffer happened 
to span the midpoint of address space, where the pointer changed sign. 
Any attempt to make a "small" example would have made the problem go away.

Some bugs simply do not yield to decimation. As I recall, I solved it by 
reading the code and thinking about it.

Steve