Comment Re:Java finally gets assert(3) (Score 1) 134
For compile time checking your better off using static code analysis, Coverity is very good at finding reverse/forward null/memory leak problems. Findbugs is good for finding some of these issues as well because it looks at the code from a byte code perspective.
Personally I use, coverity, findbugs & pmd and don't use things like assert because assert relies on the coder actually knowing what to do and doing it and these tools can be loaded into the IDE. They don't catch everything but they do find 99% of the obvious stuff.
One of the things which did stun me was running Tomcat 6.0.18 through Coverity it found 529 defects, about 180 were parameter checking ones. I've been tempted to join an open source project and spend my time resolving these kinds of bugs.
Personally I use, coverity, findbugs & pmd and don't use things like assert because assert relies on the coder actually knowing what to do and doing it and these tools can be loaded into the IDE. They don't catch everything but they do find 99% of the obvious stuff.
One of the things which did stun me was running Tomcat 6.0.18 through Coverity it found 529 defects, about 180 were parameter checking ones. I've been tempted to join an open source project and spend my time resolving these kinds of bugs.