From: Pixel <pixel@...>
Date: 2001-10-27T04:20:53+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:23494] Re: Issues with white space [was Re: Bruce Eckel's opinion of Ruby]

Paul Brannan <pbrannan@atdesk.com> writes:

> On Sat, 27 Oct 2001, Pixel wrote:
> 
> > I think the easiest way to catch this is to warn for unused constants alike
> > C's compiler:
> >
> > % echo 'int main() { 1 ; return 0; }' > /tmp/t.c && gcc -Wall /tmp/t.c
> > /tmp/t.c:1: warning: statement with no effect
> 
> This is not as easy as it sounds:
> 
>   1 + 1                  # statement has no effect

well, starting with constants could catch some errors...

of course,

i = ((1+1
      +1) / 2)

will not be detected, but at least catching easy case is a good starting
point.

[...]

> Perhaps Ruby should have different warning levels?

I like this, i heard of a python checker.

As for me, i use a simple script[1] for catching common errors in perl, eg:

never use ``length @l'', it returns the length of the string int(@l)
never use ``local $var ||= <val>'', write ``local $var = $var || <val>''
cond ? $v1 = XX1 : $v2 = XX2'' which is parted as ``(cond ? $v1 = XX1 : $v2) = XX2''

[1] http://www.mandrakelinux.com/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/~checkout~/soft/perl-MDK-Common/perl_checker?rev=1