Re: cerr and NULL terminates program + string::find() weird results

[Phil Edwards <phil at jaj dot com>]

On Wed, Oct 16, 2002 at 05:43:06PM -0400, Anibal Jodorcovsky wrote:
> well, how about (null)

"(null)" could just as easily come from a user library, or user code.  We
do not want to make assumptions about what a user wants when performing
undefined behavior.  What one user likes, another use doesn't.

> and dumping core. At least we know why and then it's
> easier to find the problem?

Why would it dump core?  It's not crashing.

    #include <iostream>

    int main()
    {
        const char* const d = 0;
        std::cerr << d << std::endl;
        if (std::cerr.good())
            std::cout << "cerr's state is okay\n";
        else
            std::cout << "cerr's state is bad, something bad "
                      << "has been sent to cerr\n";
        std::cerr << "not printing this, because cerr is disabled" << std::endl;

        std::cerr.clear();
        std::cerr << "cerr is back to normal now\n";
    }

Try running that.


Phil

-- 
I would therefore like to posit that computing's central challenge, viz. "How
not to make a mess of it," has /not/ been met.
                                                 - Edsger Dijkstra, 1930-2002