"Strong typing vs. strong testing"

[Terry Reedy]

On 10/1/2010 2:28 AM, TheFlyingDutchman wrote:
>
>>>          in C I can have a function maximum(int a, int b) that will always
>>>          work. Never blow up, and never give an invalid answer. If someone
>>>          tries to call it incorrectly it is a compile error.
>>
>> I would agree that the third sentence is arguably wrong, simply
>> because there's no such thing (outside #error) of a mandate to stop
>> compiling.  However, my understanding was that the dispute was over
>> the second sentence, and that's certainly correct.
>>
> Why do you consider the term "compile error" a "mandate to stop
> compiling"? What do you say to refer to the situation when you have a
> statement in your program that the compiler finds is an error? And is
> it really material whether the compiler flagged an error and stopped,
> or flagged an error and looked for additional errors???

For the purpose of the argument, I do not think it matters whether the 
compiler looks for additional errors before it stops compiling. More to 
to point is whether or not it eventually produces an object file that 
can be linked into an executable file. 'Compile error' (as opposed to 
'compile warning') should mean that it does not.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy