Don't Blame the Compiler

It's been a busy week without much time to blog.  In the mean time, here's a good reminder.  It's Always Your Fault.  Jeff Atwood explains why it's always the wrong idea to blame your tools.  New programmers especially see something they don't understand and assume that the tools (compiler, OS, libraries, etc.) are at fault.  While this is sometimes indeed the case, it is so rare that it's not worth considering.  Even if you do see an issue in the compiler or OS, you are unlikely to be able to get it fixed so you'll have to understand the issue and work around it anyway.