Re: [boost] An innocent mistake was nearly the end of me ;-)

From: Hervé Brönnimann (hervebronnimann_at_[hidden])
Date: 2007-12-04 03:06:58

Paul:  Since you're sharing stories, I once spent 3 weeks with a  
student on a code that just didn't compute the right expression.  The  
code was doing complicated visibility in 3D computation with lines  
(lots of the determinants all over the place).  The error was caused  
in some obscure place by:

    double expression = some_complicated_multi_line_expression() ;
                        + some_more_complicated_multi_line_expression();

That stray ";" was nearly the end of me too.  When we found it, I  
felt what you must have felt with your "<< end;'" typo. Of course,  
the student didn't use maximum warning level (-W -Wall), otherwise  
the compiler (g++) would've warned us of "statement has no effect".   
Morale of the story, for us: "Always write warning-free code".  I  
suspect using more than one compiler might have helped with your  
diagnostic.  Anyways, good for you finding that typo!
--
Hervé Brönnimann
hervebronnimann_at_[hidden]
On Nov 30, 2007, at 9:26 AM, Paul A Bristow wrote:
> I have been puzzled by the effect of my mistyping causing this  
> message.
> [snip]
> I suspect I may not be first or last person to do this :-)
>
> Could the source file usefully have a comment that says something like
> "
> If you get a error "'const_iterator' : is not a member of  
> 'std::ios_base'"
> here have you typed "end;" somewhere instead of "endl;"
> "
> ?
>
> Paul
>
> ---
> Paul A Bristow
> Prizet Farmhouse, Kendal, Cumbria UK LA8 8AB
> [phone] & SMS, Mobile [phone] & SMS
> pbristow_at_[hidden]