Line Numbers and Syntax Errors
If a programmer introduces a syntax error into a program, the compiler (or interpreter) will inform the programmer that the attempt to compile (or execute) failed at the given line number. This simplifies the job of finding the error immensely for the programmer.
The use of line numbers to describe the location of errors remains standard in modern programming tools, even though line numbers are never required to be manually specified. It is a simple matter for a program to count the newlines in a source file and display an automatically generated line number as the location of the error. In IDEs such as Microsoft Visual Studio or Xcode, in which the compiler is usually integrated with the text editor, the programmer can even double-click on an error and be taken directly to the line containing that error.
Read more about this topic: Line Number
Famous quotes containing the words line, numbers and/or errors:
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The forward Youth that would appear
Must now forsake his Muses dear,
Nor in the Shadows sing
His Numbers languishing.”
—Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)
“The errors of the observer come from the qualities of the human mind.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)