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Re: lynx-dev Re: lynx hacking, stoppage of such
From: |
John Bley |
Subject: |
Re: lynx-dev Re: lynx hacking, stoppage of such |
Date: |
Thu, 13 May 1999 05:26:10 -0400 (EDT) |
On Thu, 13 May 1999, Henry Nelson wrote:
> Somehow I got the impression that you were working on a program to find
> coding errors and do general clean-up. If that happens to be true and
> you publish it; remember us and throw us a few scraps. Anyway, thanks
> much for all of your efforts up to now.
I've been using lynx as a testing ground for improving my toolbox in this
area, yes. I've learned to use a variety of debuggers, and static- and
dynamic-analysis tools effectively, as well as how to make effective use
of common text and compile tools, etc. After learning how quirky these
tools can be and how much general project setup affects their use (I can
find an error in a official, well-maintained GNU project within minutes of
compiling it), I rather abandoned the naive dream of The One Big Error
Finding Tool, preferring to work on improving my toolbox. I hope to find
the time this summer to write up a web page that explains some of my
techniques.
I've been rather fortunate in that there were many crufty bits in lynx
that needed some fresh eyeballs. I guess the best lesson I've learned is
that if you find an error in one place, hack up a quick grep for the same
kind of thing and run it on the whole tree - it's quite likely that
somebody made the same mistake elsewhere, either because it was the same
person or because of cut-n-paste coding.
--
John Bley - address@hidden
Duke '99 - English/Computer Science
Since English is a mess, it maps well onto the problem space,
which is also a mess, which we call reality. - Larry Wall