[vtk-developers] VTK Valgrind Defects and Graffiti

[Bill Lorensen]

Folks,

There has been recent discussion about the large number of valgrind
defects in VTK. I just took a pass at some low hanging fruit. In fact,
it is so low hanging that it has touched the ground.
http://review.source.kitware.com/#change,3324
http://review.source.kitware.com/#change,3323
http://review.source.kitware.com/#change,3322
http://review.source.kitware.com/#change,3320
http://review.source.kitware.com/#change,3319

Although the defects I fixed are for the most part harmless, they are
an indicator of a overall breakdown in our process.

In the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
(http://www.wikisummaries.org/The_Tipping_Point) , a chapter on
increasing crime in New York City in the 1990's describes how the
trend was reversed. The city concentrated areas like cleaning graffiti
from subway cars. The author claims that this and other seemingly
trivial goals may have led to a reversal of the crime trend.

These valgrind defects (as well as warnings) may be VTK's graffiti.

I hope to clean more graffiti as winter progresses. I hope others will
do the same.

Bill

-- 
Unpaid intern in BillsBasement at noware dot com