From: Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de>
To: Phil Edwards <pedwards@disaster.jaj.com>
Cc: gcc@gcc.gnu.org
Subject: Re: Really crummy error messages
Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2001 23:01:00 -0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87r8selkgy.fsf@deneb.enyo.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20011007173547.A15654@disaster.jaj.com>
Phil Edwards <pedwards@disaster.jaj.com> writes:
> For "first use this function" to be a correct English sentence [fragment],
> there is only one possible parse, and it's not what is intended. "First use
> this function" is an /imperative/ with "use" as a verb (pronounced with a 'z'
> sound), and always leaves new users wondering, "first use /which/ function?"
I think this error message is dating back to the old K&R
prototype-less days, when you declared functions implicitly by
calling ("using") them. After a call such as "foo()", you can take
the address of the function by just writing "foo" (without further
declarations).
At least that's my guess. In any case, the error message is really
misleading, close to "tagged type must be declared at library
level". ;-)
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2001-10-07 23:01 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2001-10-07 14:34 Really crummy error messages, was Re: Ada files now checked in Phil Edwards
2001-10-07 23:01 ` Florian Weimer [this message]
2001-10-08 11:09 ` Zack Weinberg
2001-10-08 13:31 ` Phil Edwards
2001-10-08 16:49 ` Tim Hollebeek
2001-10-09 23:32 ` Fergus Henderson
2001-10-10 2:25 ` Florian Weimer
2001-10-10 11:00 ` Phil Edwards
2001-10-11 14:04 ` Zack Weinberg
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