1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is data processing, or, more specifically, methods, apparatus, and products for integrating compiler warnings into a debug session.
2. Description of Related Art
In today's computing environment, software programs may be actively utilized for long periods of time, well after the program's initial development. Many times these programs are recompiled for new releases even in instances where there is no development performed on the underlying software. Over time, computer languages change and a compiler's diagnostic capabilities increase. It is not uncommon to have compiler warnings in source code that software developers ignore during subsequent releases. Porting code from one platform to another platform is another instance in which compiler warning messages may arise. If the compiled and executable software application appears to function correctly once ported, many of the modules that compile with warnings may be unaltered by the software developers.
Code flagged with compiler warning messages may or may not be related to a problem in software execution, however. In some cases, such a problem may show itself a great time after compiling.
Consider, for example, a compiler warning; “Loss of precision,” when a 64-bit pointer is assigned to a 32-bit integer value. If the 32-bit value is later converted into a pointer it may or may not point back to the same location as the original pointer. In practice, the software application may function exactly as expected much of the time, until the high order bytes of the 64-bit pointer are set. Once set, an incomplete value is assigned and an error arises somewhere else in the program.
Often when debugging the program a software developer has no information regarding the compiler warnings that may have been generated at compile time and no information regarding the relationship between such compiler warnings and problems identified during debugging.