Compiling on UNIX : a general question

[Pascal]

Well, I've seen a lot of people writing something like

I have compiled this really cool binary. Even though I did get compile errors, it works fine.

I don't know for others, but it sure makes me uncomfortable to think that I could be using an application that has compile errors. So what should I think of those compile errors ? What do they really mean ? Shouldn't these compile errors be corrected ?

Should I cool down or freak out ?

 

[ajmas]

If they are warnings then it should be okay. On the other hand if they are errors then things might not work too well. The best thing to do is look at the errors and try to understand what they are saying - only by doing this can you work out whether they are critical or not. Another good thing to do is contribute the mailing-list of the program you are compiling - some programs may be compiling on MacOS X for the first time, so it is always an idea to share you experience with other people on the mailing list - it may help in correct MacOS X specific problems.

Oh, getting youself a grounding in C/C++ is always handy if you are going to be compiling stuff.