alt Hacker NewsIf your C code causes a segfault, is it fair to reason that there's a memory management error in the code? Does that make it practical to find where, so that you can just add a check for it?
Replies
lazide • yesterday at 11:16 PM
What if it only happens on a single machine?
Memory defaults can also cause segfaults.
thin_carapace • yesterday at 11:26 PM
what if segfaults only occurred when the errant path was executed in manners not initially designed for? or alternately, if that code path never got touched, would we ever have known about the segfault? should we keep focusing on segfaults or look at the ways that programs are being operated out of scope?
aaron695 • yesterday at 11:14 PM
[dead]
There are two fallacies in your analogy.
Segfaults are precise symptoms - they occur only when there's a memory issue. Autism isn't precise, is a collection of characteristics that manifest differently in each person.
Genetic is, for the purpose of this conversation, a precise diagnosis - means you carry parent genes that will cause the issue. Memory management isn't: what caused it? Code error? OS error? Processor? Is it a bad code path or a unexpected exrtenal state?
Finally, an analogy of your analogy: you measure someone temperature and it's 40C. You diagnose a fever.
Segfaults are fever, just a symptom.