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16<title>Using as: Bug Criteria</title>
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63<a name="Bug-Criteria"></a>
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65<p>
66Next: <a href="Bug-Reporting.html#Bug-Reporting" accesskey="n" rel="next">Bug Reporting</a>, Up: <a href="Reporting-Bugs.html#Reporting-Bugs" accesskey="u" rel="up">Reporting Bugs</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="AS-Index.html#AS-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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69<a name="Have-You-Found-a-Bug_003f"></a>
70<h3 class="section">10.1 Have You Found a Bug?</h3>
71<a name="index-bug-criteria"></a>
72
73<p>If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines:
74</p>
75<ul>
76<li> <a name="index-fatal-signal"></a>
77<a name="index-assembler-crash"></a>
78<a name="index-crash-of-assembler"></a>
79If the assembler gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a
80<code>as</code> bug.  Reliable assemblers never crash.
81
82</li><li> <a name="index-error-on-valid-input"></a>
83If <code>as</code> produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug.
84
85</li><li> <a name="index-invalid-input"></a>
86If <code>as</code> does not produce an error message for invalid input, that
87is a bug.  However, you should note that your idea of &ldquo;invalid input&rdquo; might
88be our idea of &ldquo;an extension&rdquo; or &ldquo;support for traditional practice&rdquo;.
89
90</li><li> If you are an experienced user of assemblers, your suggestions for improvement
91of <code>as</code> are welcome in any case.
92</li></ul>
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