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Groups > comp.lang.c > #60831

Re: Null Pointer exceptions

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On 04/22/2015 07:30 PM, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
> On 22-Apr-15 17:02, James Kuyper wrote:
...
>> than tracking down causes. You're like a doctor who sees a patient
>> coughing up blood, and concentrates his attention on cleaning up the
>> blood. A proper doctor need to figure out why the patient is bleeding
>> internally before the doctor can put a stop to it, otherwise the
>> bleeding will just continue until the patient dies as a result.
> 
> Figuring out the cause (and treating it) takes time, and if you do
> nothing for the symptoms in the meantime, the patient may die anyway.

True - symptoms do need to be treated - but that should generally not be
the only thing you do about them.

At a minimum, you should seek a diagnosis. The diagnosis might indicate
that there is no need for anything more than symptomatic relief, or it
might indicated that there is no known cure, in which case symptomatic
relief is the best you can do - but it could also identify a treatment
plan that should be put into effect as soon as possible. Until you at
least attempt diagnosis, you can't be sure which of those cases apply.

> If no cure exists for the particular disease, then all you can do is
> manage the symptoms.

Granted - but seldom completely relevant to computer bugs. Almost all
computer bugs are solvable, once you identify them sufficiently well -
the hard part is identifying them.

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Null Pointer exceptions jeff <nospam@nospam.com> - 2015-04-22 21:34 +0000
  Re: Null Pointer exceptions James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-04-22 18:02 -0400
    Re: Null Pointer exceptions Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-04-22 18:30 -0500
      Re: Null Pointer exceptions James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-04-22 19:44 -0400
        Re: Null Pointer exceptions Stephen Sprunk <stephen@sprunk.org> - 2015-04-23 11:53 -0500
          Re: Null Pointer exceptions Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2015-04-23 18:59 +0100
  Re: Null Pointer exceptions Barry Schwarz <schwarzb@dqel.com> - 2015-04-22 15:17 -0700
    Re: Null Pointer exceptions James Dow Allen <gmail@jamesdowallen.nospam> - 2015-04-23 04:11 +0000
  Re: Null Pointer exceptions Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2015-04-22 17:19 -0500
  Re: Null Pointer exceptions Ben Bacarisse <ben.lists@bsb.me.uk> - 2015-04-22 23:46 +0100
  Re: Null Pointer exceptions Nobody <nobody@nowhere.invalid> - 2015-04-23 03:14 +0100
    Re: Null Pointer exceptions James Kuyper <jameskuyper@verizon.net> - 2015-04-23 12:32 -0400

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