What Every C Programmer Should Know About Undefined Behavior #3/3

Posted May 22, 2011 1:52 UTC (Sun) by welinder (guest, #4699)
In reply to: What Every C Programmer Should Know About Undefined Behavior #3/3 by jd
Parent article: What Every C Programmer Should Know About Undefined Behavior #3/3

> Once the executable code has been generated, it should be possible to
> say in a well-defined subset of cases whether the resultant binary is
> trying to perform a nonsense operation.

That would be a solution to the halting problem. So, no -- not possible.

What Every C Programmer Should Know About Undefined Behavior #3/3

Posted May 22, 2011 8:36 UTC (Sun) by nteon (subscriber, #53899) [Link]

well, patches welcome of course :)

What Every C Programmer Should Know About Undefined Behavior #3/3

Posted May 23, 2011 15:19 UTC (Mon) by HelloWorld (guest, #56129) [Link]

> That would be a solution to the halting problem.
How so?

What Every C Programmer Should Know About Undefined Behavior #3/3

Posted May 23, 2011 15:53 UTC (Mon) by vonbrand (guest, #4458) [Link]

It is possible to find a set of conditions in which nothing strange happens (by simulating the program running in each case, or some sophisticated variation thereof). The problem is that doing so is a lot of work, and/or the resulting set of "safe" uses is disappointingly small.