New features in GCC 16: Improved error messages and SARIF output

(developers.redhat.com)

26 points | by siteshwar 2 days ago

1 comments

  • ChristianJacobs 27 minutes ago
    Great news! As someone who's moving back to a C++ job after having worked with Rust for several years now, the error message parsing is one of the things I've been dreading the most... I'm still dreading it, but now sliiightly less.

    Also, that interactive `-fanalyze`-output with the pointer visualisation looks super handy!

    Happy to see there's still focus on the DX in GCC. C and C++ sorely needs it.

    • vlovich123 22 minutes ago
      This has appeared multiple times over the years as “compiler improves c++ errors” and is even the reason given as motivating things like concepts. Sure it keeps improving but the errors don’t seem to actually get smaller. The problem is inherent to templates - c++ got it wrong by having templates start weakly typed and it has no mechanisms to correct it in the language - concepts helped but didn’t definitively fix it and also are a serious level of complexity (ie for writing and defining concepts) - it just shifted the burden one level but ultimately the mess is still there.

      After more than 20 years in c++, I gave up that the situation will ever really be fixed vs constantly being made better at the margins, but not as fast as new ideas get added to the language.

      • ChristianJacobs 3 minutes ago
        You're not wrong there. The late stage (compilation wise) of template instantiation doesn't help either, as so much context has been built up. The art of debugging C++ compiler output is knowing which 90% to ignore. If you read it all you'll simply go mad.

        Concepts at least tells you which criteria you didn't satisfy (as long as the concept is correct...), which - admittedly - feels like putting a bandaid on bullet wound.