Changes between Version 33 and Version 34 of Guidelines/MaintenanceGuidelines

Timestamp:

Nov 20, 2009, 4:52:11 PM (13 years ago)

Author:

Paul A. Bristow

Comment:

Added statement of philosophy from Robert Stewart

Guidelines/MaintenanceGuidelines

@@ -547 +547 @@
 avoiding vendor specific extensions if possible.
 
-See also [https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/WarningFixes] for progress on warning suppression.[[BR]]
+Warnings often indicate real problems.  Sometimes they only manifest 
+on a particular platform, revealing a portability issue.  Sometimes 
+they indicate that the code doesn't account for a runtime condition, 
+like overflow, which the warning can only suggest as a possibility.
+
+Suppressing a warning without altering code may simply mask a problem. 
+The right approach is to determine why the warning occurs is to decide 
+whether it is correct in the context, and if so, apply appropriate remediation.
+If the warning is not correct in the context, only then should it be suppressed.
+
+Because developers don't have the same knowledge, even among Boost 
+developers, Boost is amassing information to help them know when a 
+warning is significant and not.  That information can show cases in 
+which a warning is legitimate and when it isn't.  For the former, 
+there is help to understand how to change the code portably to 
+account for the problem revealed by the warning.  For the latter, 
+there is information on how to suppress the warning in a portable way.
+
+Changing code can lead to bugs.  Thus, changing code to eliminate a warning might create a bug.  That's unfortunate.
+From a maintenance standpoint, however, most would prefer to see altered code to a 
+glob of preprocessor and pragma line noise that suppresses a warning in the unchanged code.
+
+Testing will reveal the bug.  If it doesn't, the testing is insufficient.
+If the bug appears on an untested platform, then more testers are needed to be able to detect such bugs in the future.
+
+See also [https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/WarningFixes] for progress made on warning fixes/suppression.[[BR]]
 
 '''Reasons to eliminate or suppress warnings:'''