AVR-Chat

The problem of C's error messages being useless has existed in all the
C compilers I've ever used.  That covers about a dozen compilers from
AVR's use of gcc to somewhat larger machines that process millions of
business transactions per day.

I have found that using a "lint" program helps a lot.  Lint programs
are basically syntax checkers for your code.  They tend to have much
better error messages than the compilers.  So, I just stick a Lint
program in my make file and look at its output.  Sometimes, I even
ignore the C compiler output.

There's also "bounds checker" programs, which are sometimes packaged
with a Lint.  These can find bugs that go beyond syntax to execution.

I very highly recommend using both of these strategies for any code
that will go into production.

-Bob