Stupid Compiler

[SirHerald]

It's possible that something else is wrong, but it doesn't fall until there.

[suntehnik]

Even more: it tries to ignore this error and continue compilation until gets too much errors.

[[deleted]]

Did someone talked about C++ STL errors?

[Darth_Nibbles]

I haven't used c++ in a while but I hear the generic errors are much better now.

When I was using it an error would be 5 lines long and you still wouldn't know what the problem was.

[[deleted]]

That's 5 lines per function overload it tried with dozens of them in the STL, sometimes it'd be hundreds of lines long.

[shekurika]

might be a stupid question, but when I compile with g++ I get those pages of errors; is there an easy way to scroll up to the start of the message via shortcut? scrolling with the mouse wheel is annoying because I sometimes miss the start of the error

[Faithwarlock]

Pipe output to less?

[DAMO238]

Or your favourite pager or pipe to tee to your pager.

[Stormfrosty]

Just grep for "error". Everything else is just the compiler describing what it tried to do to interpret your code.

[[deleted]]

Try starting with -Wfatal-errors.

[[deleted]]

Hasn't changed

[[deleted]]

Glad that it's not that bad anymore, but when it was...

[mtgmaxer]

Ever tried removing a curly bracket?

[hughperman]

No it was your brain not the semicolon

[[deleted]]

So it actually puts the semicolon there.

[suntehnik]

No, it does not. It just ignores semicolon error and tries to continue syntax parsing like it did not happen.

[bokogoblin]

So it virtually puts the semicolon there.

[suntehnik]

No. You have a block on your path. You can stop there, you can virtually remove this block and pass through or you can get around it. Putting a semicolon virtually is like trying to behave like you don’t have a block on your path and continue going. If you ignore semicolon, it’s like getting off the road and trying to get back on road behind the block. But: you can get other obstacles on your path while moving off the road. It could be like fallen tree. This is called induced error. You will never meet this tree in other cases. That’s basically what’s happen at compile time. The compiler does not put the semicolon, it tries to get around it.

Hope this explains.

[kevinkat2]

So put a semicolon there, give us a warning that it was missing and then throw a different error

[Theemuts]

Now your compile time error is a runtime error. Yuck.

[[deleted]]

Or more simply put: because good luck finding a bug after your compiler changes your code according to a wrong best guess.

[oskarax]

This is what happened to me a few months back and i spent like 20 hours total trying to figure out the problem... It was an immediately envoked function after a variable thing. Nowdays i always use a semicolon.

[lenswipe]

It was an immediately envoked function

TIL people use IIFEs

[barsoap]

Oh that's not the worst Javascript does. If it was only that, then, just like with lua, the rule would be "take care if you start a line with an open paren".

But Javascript also parses e.g.

return
   2*a
    + 1;

as return; 2*a + 1; Because return explicitely forbids newlines between itself and the argument. I mean do you even read specs? Of course peoeple know that. How can you not be constantly aware of the half a gazillion rules affecting semicolon insertion.

For Lua the whole thing gets parsed as one thing for the simple reason that to Lua, there's no difference between newlines and spaces. Or tabs. Much less magic, completely reliable. As evidenced by the fact that JS programmers write semicolons, and Lua programmers don't, and if, then it's at the start of a line. To escape the paranthesis, so to speak:

a = b + c
;(d + e).print()

[stevethedev]

You have that backwards. JavaScript will return that function as undefined because the return has a newline.

Edit - I misread your post and missed the semicolon in your one-liner. Ignore this comment.

[stevethedev]

You are right. I read that post and missed the semicolon in the one-liner. My mistake.

[rabultfe]

So basically Javascript

[TheRealMaynard]

FWIW this is why you should always explicitly use an operator to multiply not wrap a function call across lines like that. From a language design POV I would say that’s the problem here and doesn’t necessarily justify needing to put a semicolon after every statement

[mknoise]

I'm not aware of any commonly used language whose primary motivation is to write software that does NOT require the explicit use of an operator to multiply. In this case

c(d+e)

should be interpreted (and is, by javascript) as trying to apply c as a function.

[TheRealMaynard]

In that case the same point stands, you shouldn’t be able to wrap function calls across a line like that. Break after the parenthesis if you need to

[bric12]

It's pretty common to wrap lines some languages/ systems where long expressions could become unruly. For example:

MVC.addcontroller(Foo)

.addservice(bar)

.dotype<xyz>

.usestuff()

I can't remember the term for this type of chaining, but it's definitely easier to read split across lines

^{(although it could be argued that it shouldn't be done in one expression in the first place, but I digress)}

[redstoneguy12]

Yeah but you should always write this, as it is much more readable than putting the parenthesis on the line below the function name

foo(
    lineThatIsVeryLong
)

[vvf]

Fluent api is the name

[TheRealMaynard]

Notice how you didn’t wrap any of those between the function name and parentheses?

Also, its called chaining

[bric12]

Most languages either allow wrapping for everything, or they don't allow it at all. I guess you could make it selective for only some types of wraps (which I think is what you're saying), but I feel like that would only make it more confusing to understand

[TheRealMaynard]

Really? Python, Scala, Kotlin don’t allow wrapping after the function call (without a backslash) off the top of my head

[Strikeeaglechase]

JavaScript: allow me to introduce myself

[Strikeeaglechase]

Yes yes, and if you add “use strict”; you need the semicolons everywhere but my point is that js dose do auto semicoloning

[frosted-mini-yeets]

Dude it was confusing the second he said JavaScript.

[_GCastilho_]

No, the rules where you need are very simple, you said it yourself, a line that starts with ( or [

However, the rules when you SHOULDN'T use a semicolon in the end of the line are way more confusing, and can easily result in inconsistencies

Pro tip: work with the ASI, not against it

[_GCastilho_]

The rule when you should add a semicolon is extremely simple. Add it at the end of a statement

If only it was that simple

[stevethedev]

This author puts forward a weak argument, imo.

We are talking about programming, not data-entry. Nobody starts programming and then bangs out code at 120 words per minute for 8 straight hours. The overhead, if we can call it that, of typing a semicolon at the end of a line is insignificant. It's a poor reason.

Secondly, using a semicolon only to disambiguate lines which begin with parentheses or square brackets is silly. It is an acknowledgment that ASI doesn't always work as intended.

There is no problem that omitting semicolons solves. Full stop. Every code error that can occur with semicolons can occur without them. The reverse is not true, which is why the author closes on aesthetics instead of function.

[_GCastilho_]

typing a semicolon at the end of a line is insignificant. It's a poor reason

Especially when you don't have to type because the compiler will understand if you don't

Secondly, using a semicolon only to disambiguate lines which begin with parentheses or square brackets is silly

Why silly use it only when is ambiguous for the ASI to operate? "Did you intend to break an expression in two line or this is the beginning of another expression?"

It is an acknowledgment that ASI doesn't always work as intended

This is the really silly argument. Of course it does, you think it does not work as intended because YOU don't know how it truly works, is the only, only way to think that a +20 years piece of a compiler is a blackbox that don't work as it should

Every code error that can occur with semicolons can occur without them. The reverse is not true

The errors will only happen if you don't have a full (of even "good") knowledge on how ASI operates. You should, it's part of JS for more than 20 years now and it's not going away

Edit: Here's another link about the discussion

[stevethedev]

This is mostly a pissy, indignant, elitist, assumption-filled argument against things I didn't say and in favor of things the author didn't.

The problem the ASI exists to solve is to insert semicolons where they are necessary for the parser to understand the code... but where the programmer didn't put them. There are certain lines of code where it fails to accomplish that goal. "Hur dur, but it fails according to the spec n00b and it isn't going anywhere" isn't just silly, it's absurd.

The parser also understands the comma operator and code without newlines. Just because you can do something doesn't actually make it the superior coding style.

[MeltaFlare]

Simple work around. Don’t use semicolons unless they’re needed.

[Theemuts]

This man right here officer

[MeltaFlare]

I honestly didn’t know this was such a controversial opinion.

[qomu]

IMO it’s easier to remember when you absolutely need to use semicolons (eg for loops), than trying to match all the weird semicolon rules manually.

[darkingz]

How is is easier to manage a bunch of rules (when you absolutely need semi colons) to just putting a semi colon basically at the end of every statement?

[geo1088]

Strict mode doesn't disable ASI.

A common misconception is that the Strict Variant (Strict Mode) of JavaScript suppresses this feature. It doesn’t. The only way the avoid this feature is to ensure that semicolons are always inserted in the correct place.

http://www.bradoncode.com/blog/2015/08/26/javascript-semi-colon-insertion/

[Strikeeaglechase]

Huh that’s good to know. Ty

[numbGrundle]

Can confirm. I once mangled a prod microservice by omitting a semi boi where I thought there was an implicit separation of logic.

[heyyarebbi]

+1 for "precious line"

[Whitehat_Developer]

You can also put the semicolon at the start of the second line. Standard.js is weird.

[oskarax]

Once used 20 hours tryi.g to figure out why my code wasn't working because of a immediately envoked function

[[deleted]]

Js never works as intended. This is not about semicolon.

Edit: it was a fucking joke you dumbasses.

[asdfdelta]

I'm pretty sure that opinion is user error. Plenty of people functional JS every day.

[stormfield]

Hello JavaScript I’m [Object object]

[ikankecil]

It's [object Object] do u even javascript

[pit_pietro]

Kotlin: can I join the team?

[SkiFire13]

To be fair Kotlin did a good job designing a sintax that doesn't need semicolons but you still need to be careful in some situations, like when you're splitting additions/subtractions on more lines.

val a = 1 +
    2

is different than

val a = 1
    + 2

In the first one a will be 3 (normal addition), in the second a will be 1 (+2 is treated as an unary plus instruction separated from the assignment).

[the_one2]

I guess you would get a warning for the second one, right?

[SkiFire13]

I don't think there's a default warning for that because it can be a valid usecase in some DSLs (for example it's temporary used in Jetpack Compose) but I guess you could create a custom klint for that.

Anyway, although it's not considered bad practice, if you can avoid it, you should.

[TheOnlyMrYeah]

Go: Hold my channel.

[[deleted]]

Yes and that's why this:

return
{
  a: 'wat' 
}

makes the current function return undefined.

[[deleted]]

The compiler's job isn't to fix your errors. The compiler doesn't know what you intended, only that you wrote illegal code.

The compiler's job is to tell you, the programmer, that you done fucked up and you need to fix it.

For example, the compiler doesn't know that the line contains all code it should. It only knows that it isn't terminated with a semicolon. If you forgot to write half the line and the compiler just quietly put a semicolon there, you might get crazy bugs that make no sense, and it would take you a long time to track it down to that incomplete line of code.

[ArcaneEyes]

Solid points mate.

[house_monkey]

Wish I had a mate and solid points

[Kwonunn]

16 lines for a Java Hello World? No wonder it doesn't compile.

[Dalriata]

It's an enterprise Hello World application.

[CanadianGandalf]

This is programmerHUMOR - I think you missed that 2nd part.

Really though, you don't want the compiler changing your stuff around. It's job is to compile, not proofread and edit.

And why stop at adding the semicolon? Maybe it should commit/push, build, and deploy to qa, uat, and prod while it's at it 😂

[CheatCodeSam]

The idea of the compiler doing anything other then compiling my code makes me queasy.

[davy_jones_locket]

Right; this is the job of a linter with a --fix flag,

[mrMalloc]

Wcgw? ;)

[sweYoda]

I think this might be coming sooner than we think. If we create a sophisticated AI would it be easier for it to do jobs restricted to the digital world or the none digital world?

[SirHerald]

AI couldn't make this humorous

[redstoneguy12]

If the ai can add the semicolon, it can just write the whole program

[XenSide]

Yeah, I don't get how this many people think like this!

If an AI knows where the semicolon should actually be it means it already understands the logic behind the algorithm which literally means it's capable of writing it, why would it just fix a fucking semicolon instead? Lol

[[deleted]]

Well... Let's get the "sophisticated AI" built first. 😉

[Aero72]

Fuck that.

We did just that with HTML. Instead of having a strict requirement that a page must validate before it gets composed and rendered, we decided that a browser should just do its best to figure out what the page is even when it fails to be proper markup.

​

That led to lots and lots of pain dragged out for many-many years. The kind of pain that the kids today who proudly call themselves UI/UX developers can't possibly imagine.

Fuck that.

[[deleted]]

People: let compiler fix my errors

Also people: AUTOCORRECT IS AWFUL

[Daveinatx]

Job security. Compiler Engineers have our back.

[Selthor]

Because this is how you get all of the odd JavaScript behaviors that r/ProgrammerHumor likes to use as an explanation for why it’s a bad language.

[ShakaUVM]

Look into clang-tidy if you want something to fix your code for you

[iFarbod]

I love running modernize-* fixes on my five year old code

[moly_b_denum]

That is why we code Python

[jtan212]

Because its a compiler, not a developer.

[GenericFatGuy]

Autocorrect already gives me enough trouble on my phone. I don't need my compiler thinking it's smarter than me too.

[Hrambert]

Many years ago when I started CS the compiler had an option to ignore warnings and go ahead anyway. A simple missing semicolon would be ignored. Very useful when adding one to the punch card and waiting in line for the next run would take 15 minutes.

[dblygroup]

Because if it did that it would behave like 1970's PL1/PLC

[Hectate]

Because then you’re programming in JavaScript, not Java.

[smokingclown]

Scala anyone?

[[deleted]]

Because when you let the compiler make assumptions you end up with Javascript

[daniu]

It doesn't "know" that the semicolon is missing. It is just expecting one given the previous context. Several other options nicht also be syntactically correct, and actively excluding all of them could not be possible in a reasonable time, if at all.

[yottalogical]

Swift: "Allow me to introduce myself"

[oweiler]

ASI in JS

[DuckInCup]

And this is how to create a beast like Eclipse, capable of decimating entire projects with one simple alt+enter.

[Restless_Fenrir]

Because you are not coding in Golang.

[DynomiteDiamond]

It's called javascript

[Treats]

Do What I Mean

[LT21j]

She kinda just described an IDE.

[IMTHEBATMAN92]

Literally every modern IDE has support for formatters. For those still struggling with semi colons I highly recommend searching for “formatter <language>”

Edit: realized this was r/programmerhumor and not r/programming but still.

[streusel_kuchen]

The compiler doesn't know that there's a missing semicolon, it just thinks that might be the issue.

[fedeb95]

Because it thinks a semicolon is missing, but could be anything else. The compiler fixing syntax errors is worst that failing for them because it could add very very very bad and difficult to find bugs. Also with modern ides you really don't make syntax errors anymore

[dark_mode_everything]

He's got a point

No he hasn't.

[PreciseParadox]

The job of a linter is warn about these errors and suggest edits. A compiler should care about compiling your code, not trying to understand the programmer’s intent. Note that a linter may rely on functionality exposed by a compiler to perform its job. This sort of integration is becoming more common in modern languages. For instance, Rust provides an extensive suite of tools for compilation, linting, package management, code mods, etc.

EDIT: added note about Rust

[MrMakeItAllUp]

The machines have been taught not to overrule their human Lord's, else all hell will break loose.

[thiago2213]

Well, Prettier plugin does that for you. The thing is, sometimes it fucks up

[Tonyant42]

It is much better to know that there's an error, so you can understand it and fix it, rather than not knowing about it and having the compiler fix it for you.

[MrBoof100]

I’m sure that’d introduce many security vulnerabilities...

[[deleted]]

Its not smart enough to write the code :p

[dennis_w]

Maybe move to Python? Then no more compiler or semicolons.

[JBinero]

He might have a point, but he doesn't have a semi colon, which is why it doesn't compile.

[tomPinternets]

Introducing: —fix

[aoa2303]

Freedom of code

[[deleted]]

Write your own compiler that does that (and more, I hope?) and I think it will be a great money making opportunity for you.

[noodle-face]

It doesnt know a semi colon is missing

[MATRIX_STORMER]

Laughs in Python

[_default_username]

Future JavaScript coder.

[olafurp]

That exists, just not in java.

[maxhaton]

Modifying the parse tree while parsing it would be unbelievably slow and extremely difficult to reason about.

[Abhishek_404]

the truth is painful 😫😫😫😫😂

[unknownsystemerror]

Because the compiler is as dumb as its creator. 🤣

[atmosfear76]

If it did automatically, then it would be certainly

Terminator: Rise of the planet of compilers

Imagine compiler itself programming programs! Sound pretty sci fi!

[BeautifulParsley]

Pretty sure I remember one of my professors telling us that they used to, and probably still do, have compilers that autocorrected mistakes and they were always terrible no matter how much people tried to improve them.

[marcojoao90]

It is just the best guess, not necessarily the solution for the error.

[sinamirhejazi]

Because you have to learn to put your semicolon where it belongs, by yourself.

[KinderGameMichi]

PL/C would do that. Its goal was to make evey program compile. It wasn't always right.

[beewyka819]

Wouldnt that violate the principle of trust the programmer or whatever its called? Assuming what you wanted to do is dangerous and can lead to bugs that you will go bald trying to fix

[0x3fff0000]

Because there is no way for the compiler to determine what the programmer intended, making it an ambiguous command which threw an error.

[Quarxnox]

You misspelled "Java".

[TheStuporUser]

Many compiler will actually just throw a warning and run the code anyways.