In general, should I configure my compiler to handle warnings as errors?

Question

Is there a short-term annoyance about fixing warnings that you could leave with dividends to pay dividends in the long run? What types of runtime errors can usually be avoided by doing this?

Answer 1

My opinion is that there are warnings for some reason; ignore them at your own risk. While some are really picky, for the most part they do it for a good reason. I would prefer that they be fixed, and a good clean compiler.

Answer 2

It depends on what you think is a “warning that you can leave." Also in light of any future modifications to your code.

The longer I think about it, the fewer “warnings I can leave” remain.

Answer 3

I usually fix all warnings, but don't set them as errors ...

Answer 4

In general, yes.

I am sure there are many exceptions. Third-party header libraries that won't compile this way, but that you don’t want to touch, are the largest of them that I can think of. (Even then, I sometimes used #pragmas around the #include line to suppress warnings in some headers, so I can save warnings as errors in the rest of the code.)

Another exception are small projects; a simple rule for me - if I need a Makefile, then this is no longer a small project, and I want to receive an anal message about warnings, documentation and unit tests.

Answer 5

This is why I think you should treat warnings as errors:

When you have a long chain of methods where something can turn out null:

var amount = _client.SnatchLeftoverOrders( _username, _password, "pepperoni").Where( o => o.Ingredients.Any("mushrooms").Where( o => o.Ownersname.ToUpper == _incomingName ).Amount(); 

Or something like this - there are many places where zero exceptions can occur.

The code is much simpler when you put these lines in a try / catch than add FirstOrDefaults () and then paste in! null

If you have a catch, you have to do something with the Exception object or this is an error (if you treat warnings as errors.

This is not a way to win the “polished programming” medal, but it simplifies things. There is too much stuff for nannies in programming these days.