An example of Clang error messages

[Walter Bright]

Michel Fortin wrote:
> I agree it isn't great on the command line, but just because something 
> isn't great on the command line doesn't mean it can't be great 
> elsewhere. I think it's useful to track this information., even if you 
> choose to not display it by default.

I've seen the picture and accompanying article. One should be careful 
about interpreting it, though. An error message may be a perfect fit for 
one context, and woefully miss the point in another, even though the 
compiler cannot tell the cases apart.

This is a particular problem in C++ because certain constructs, like 
f(g), can have all kinds of different meanings. So if the user makes a 
mistake with f(g), it's impossible for the compiler to accurately know 
which of all those meanings was intended, so the error message winds up 
being something little better than:

     "some error happened compiling f(g)"

and the source of the user's actual mistake may be quite far away from 
there.