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On Sun, Jan 28, 2007 at 10:04:14AM +0200, Yossi Kreinin wrote:
> Exceptions and error codes aside, people who trap SIGSEGV should be shot.
Unless what they're writing is a debugging aid, and they're not using C.
If you're using C then obviously you should just dump core, as that will
contain all the information you need. However, if you're writing in
some other language, if you let it dump core then it'll dump (for
instance) the state of a mind-bogglingly complex interpreter, with
who-knows-what going on inside it, with whose internals you are not
familiar. Of course, if you can make the interpreter segfault* then
you've found a bug in it but generally it's more important to code
around that bug cos it'll take god knows how long to get it fixed - not
to mention the political shenanigans involved in upgrading an
interpreter in a lot of places. But anyway, in those cases, catching
SIGSEGV and spitting out your own diagnostics *and then halting,
immediately* is a Very Good Idea.
* yes perl, I'm looking at you.
--
David Cantrell | Nth greatest programmer in the world
The test of the goodness of a thing is its fitness for use. If it
fails on this first test, no amount of ornamentation or finish will
make it any better, it will only make it more expensive and foolish.
-- Frank Pick, lecture to the Design and Industries Assoc, 1916
There's stuff above here
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