On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 11:48, Brian Budge <brian.budge@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Nothing is immune to pointer problems that violate preconditions. > > I'm curious; is it really easier to modify the compiler than to write > your string construction as I proposed? Here's the situation: open source library A (http://brlcad.org) with many kloc of C code by many people over decades - possible lots of hidden null ptr string bugs remaining (one found just recently) open source library A++ wrapping lib A user of A++ gets stuck and finds one of the null char* bugs as it is used to construct a C++ string user of A++ can't fix A++ Now consider my original suggestion with this modification: consider it a built-in try {} catch {} block and trap the exception and return an empty string as well as report the problem to stderr The compiler option might be something like: "--auto-catch-c++-null-string-exception" Now the user may be able to carry on and he can also report the bug. Regards, -Tom
