compiler warnings

[Steve Strassmann <straz@cambridge.apple.com>]

>Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1992 02:28 EDT
>From: JAN92@uno.cc.geneseo.edu
>
>My vote is also to have some standard way to disable warnings - with full 
>knowledge that this is generally a bad thing to do.  Many other language 
>systems (notably gcc and cc under UNIX) have ways to do this; it would be 
>nice if MCL had some standard way to do this as well.
>
>John
>
>
There's a strong cultural bias against the cc/UNIX mindset that you're 
proposing. We're talking about a fundamental, irreconcilable disagreement, 
like when one roomate wants to clean the other roomate's smelly food out 
from the refrigerator.

The case for an "disable warnings" flag is that there are some times
when you just don't want to be reminded by them. Actually, several
ways to do this have already been posted here.

The case against is that you should have a zero-tolerance attitude 
toward bugs. Once a "lousy code mindset" sets in, your suffering will
never stop. This, of course, has already happened to the unix world,
and quite a lot of people think the epidemic was preventable.

As a friend once said, "If the car industry behaved like
the computer industry over the last 30 years, a Rolls-Royce would
cost $5, get 300 miles per gallon, and blow up once a year killing
all passengers inside."