Automatic Bug Finder

Who likes a fault-finder? Well, the FindBugs utility from the University of Marylind makes me smile. I’m delighted to see that this project is alive and kicking. Kicking at bugs!

When I tried it about two years ago I didn’t expect a lot. A small program pretending it could find bugs in Java programs? So I let it have a go at a not too large project I had done. To my astonishment and embarrassment it didn’t just nag about bad habits, lint style, it actually found one or two real bugs! My embarrassment quickly turned into admiration.

Java has a very capable compiler. You may think it checks everything. It doesn’t.