Improving Compiler Error Messages

[Walter Bright]

Adam D. Ruppe wrote:
> On Sat, May 01, 2010 at 07:56:42PM -0700, Walter Bright wrote:
>> http://www.drdobbs.com/blog/archives/2010/05/improving_compi.html
> 
>> 1. quit on first error
>> This certainly prevents any cascaded messages, and is adequate for a hobby 
>> compiler. Professional users expect much better.
> 
> Am I strange in that this is all I really pay attention to? I generally
> hit compile, look at just the first error, fix it, compile again, repeat
> until it goes through.
> 
> Probably habit formed from most errors beyond the first being mostly
> useless anyway, but I'd actually be perfectly ok with it stopping at the
> first one.

Reading the first one only generally is a reaction to compilers giving nonsense 
cascaded errors afterwards. If the multiple errors really are errors, then it's 
convenient to get them fixed with one pass through the edit/compile cycle.