"lint" lets very bad code pass

[jim at ISM780B.UUCP]

>> > 1) "-c option"?  That option tells "lint" to compile a "lint" library.
>> > Why should that have anything to do with this?
>
>> We must have very different versions of lint.  Here is an extract from the
>> 4.1BSD lint man page listing of options:
>>
>>      c    Complain about casts which have questionable portabil-
>>           ity.
>
>Yes, we certainly do have different versions of "lint".  Here is an extract
>from the System V Release 2 lint man page listing of options:
>
>     -c     Cause *lint* to produce a ".ln" file for every ".c" file
>            on the command line.

In V7, -c meant "suppress complaints about questionable casts".
In SysIII, -c meant "complain about questionable casts".
SysV lint had no -c.
In SysV.2, lint -c is to *.ln as cc -c is to *.o .

Sigh.

-- Jim Balter, INTERACTIVE Systems (ima!jim)