Products · Broad category
C compilers
Raised as a usability problem by 38 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 39 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
A cascade of misleading follow-on errors after the first errorUnreviewed
20092026- Compilers emit code that crashes despite maximum warnings showing nothing2026-02-10
- Compiler errors are unhelpful, like a bare 'unresolved symbol' with no useful detail2023-07-09
- Compiler warning for uninitialized variables silently misses this case, so mistakes go unflagged2023-02-18
Error messages point to the wrong line, often pages awayUnreviewed
20092026- Error messages point to the wrong line, often pages away from the real error2024-12-06
- Cryptic errors point at the wrong line for simple typos, with no suggested fix2022-04-10
- Error messages are not as helpful as expected, making problems harder to understand2012-02-23
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 34 complaints
- Could not figure out how to get C code to run at home2026-04-07
- Silently breaks code on undefined behavior without any warning, even with all warnings enabled2026-02-18
- Compilers emit code that crashes despite maximum warnings showing nothing2026-02-10
- Setting up C toolchains requires choosing and wiring many separate tools with confusing dependencies2025-03-31
- Gcc C++ error messages are hard to read and understand2025-02-23
- Accidentally passing const pointers to non-const parameters only triggers a warning, not an error2024-12-25
- Error messages point to the wrong line, often pages away from the real error2024-12-06
- Macro names colliding with opcodes produce super-confusing compiler error messages2024-06-11
- Must use Docker images of older OSes to target older glibc versions2024-05-14
- Compiler errors are unhelpful, like a bare 'unresolved symbol' with no useful detail2023-07-09
- Compiler warning for uninitialized variables silently misses this case, so mistakes go unflagged2023-02-18
- Silently deletes security checks over subtle undefined behavior, hard to predict2022-11-28
- Compilation times are so long that developer experience is terrible2022-08-02
- Cryptic errors point at the wrong line for simple typos, with no suggested fix2022-04-10
- Couldn't figure out how to make graphics or a UI, so gave up2021-11-02
- Correct code can silently break after compiler upgrades, making correct C hard to write2021-10-11
- GCC's error messages are horrible compared to clang's2021-10-07
- Counterintuitive optimisations away from source code make the language harder to use2021-05-09
- Translated errors can't be searched online, so they're useless when seeking help2021-04-15
- Dumps reams of misleading errors; first error is a red herring for unclosed parens2020-06-06
- Manually specifying libraries to link, in the correct order, is baffling2019-10-25
- Flags silently ignored inside pragma blocks with no warning given to the user2018-03-16
- Even experienced programmers get tripped up by unintuitive undefined behavior2017-10-03
- Undefined behavior gotchas are hidden in source code and hard to spot2017-09-25
- Cannot easily move-capture a variadic parameter pack in lambdas2017-01-13
- Makes programmers do inline assembly the hard way, unlike CodeWarrior2016-04-23
- Compiler errors gave no hint of a stray semicolon, so the bug took days to find2015-02-23
- GCC 4.x errors and warnings put the commenter off Linux development2014-04-19
- Too many confusing options; humans need autoconf and Makefiles to use it2013-11-22
- Error messages are not as helpful as expected, making problems harder to understand2012-02-23
- Error messages lack column info and clear highlighting, so users must stare to find the problem2010-10-06
- Compiling a simple Hello World takes over four seconds2010-04-23
- Compiler emits a cascade of misleading follow-on error messages after the first error2010-04-15
- Hard for newcomers to modify the code; little documentation, constant lookups needed2009-12-29