Tech Report CS-91-51

Automatic Detection of C{\tt ++}Programming Errors: Initial Thoughts on a {\sf lint{\tt ++}}

Scott Meyers and Moises Lejter

August 1991

Abstract:

In this paper we argue that there is sufficient experience with C++ to justify the development of a tool that examines C++ programs for the presence of likely programmer errors, and we describe a number of common mistakes that could be detected by such a tool. We show that such a tool would be both straightforward to develop and efficient to apply. We also discuss how such a tool could be extended to detect violations of design constraints expressed in some as-yet-to-be-developed C++ metalanguage.

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