Strings and C++ Warnings

When I build code I try to work in a “zero warnings” mode. That is, when I build the code I don’t see any mutterings about stuff the compiler thinks might think is stupid. However, sometimes I get warnings that I don’t think I deserve. For example, I tend to do things like this:

char * name;

name = “Rob”;

I know what I’m doing here. I’m creating a character pointer and then making it refer to a string literal. It’s how big chunks of the control code for my “Connected Little Boxes” work. In the land of C it is OK to do this (- at least I think it is). However, C++ is now all grown up, has a String type and thinks it’s OK to moan at me for doing this.

I’ve got round the problem by telling the compiler to ignore this particular warning:

#pragma GCC diagnostic ignored "-Wwrite-strings"

This is an instruction to tell the compiler disable that specific warning. The -Wwrite-strings bit is how I tell the compiler the warning that I want it to ignore. I did a bit of soul searching before I added this statement. Most of the time I really want to know if I might be doing something stupid. But I reckon this is a case of “greater good” in that it makes other mistakes more likely to stand out.