Editing Lint (software) (section)

== Successor linters ==
The analysis performed by lint-like tools can also be performed by an [[optimizing compiler]], which aims to generate faster code.  Even though modern [[compiler]]s have evolved to include many of lint's historical functions, lint-like tools have also evolved to detect an even wider variety of suspicious constructs. These include "warnings about syntax errors, uses of [[Undefined variable|undeclared variables]], calls to deprecated functions, spacing and formatting conventions, misuse of scope, implicit fallthrough in [[Switch statement|switch statements]], missing license headers, [and]...dangerous language features".<ref name="phab">{{cite web|title=Arcanist User Guide: Lint|url=https://secure.phabricator.com/book/phabricator/article/arcanist_lint/|website=Phabricator|access-date=19 January 2018}}</ref>

Lint-like tools are especially useful for [[Type system#DYNAMIC|dynamically typed languages]] like [[JavaScript]] and [[Python (programming language)|Python]]. Because the interpreters of such languages typically do not enforce as many and as strict rules during [[Execution (computing)|execution]], linter tools can also be used as simple [[debugger]]s for finding common errors (e.g. syntactic discrepancies) as well as hard-to-find errors such as [[heisenbug]]s (drawing attention to suspicious code as "possible errors").<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecodecampus.de/blog/eslint-customizable-javascript-linting-tool-1/|title=ESLint - Customizable JavaScript linting tool (1)|date=2015-06-09|website=theCodeCampus|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-21}}</ref> Lint-like tools generally perform [[static code analysis|static analysis]] of source code.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://barrgroup.com/Embedded-Systems/How-To/Lint-Static-Analysis-Tool|title=How to Use Lint for Static Code Analysis|date=1 May 2002|work=Barr Group|first=Nigel| last = Jones}}</ref>

Lint-like tools have also been developed for other aspects of software development, such as enforcing grammar and style guides for given language source code.<ref>{{Citation |title=rust-lang/rustfmt |date=2025-01-20 |url=https://github.com/rust-lang/rustfmt |access-date=2025-01-21 |publisher=The Rust Programming Language}}</ref> Some tools (such as [[ESLint]]) also allow rules to be auto-fixable: a rule definition can also come with the definition of a transform that resolves the warning. Rules about style are especially likely to come with an auto-fix. If the linter is run in "fix all" mode on a file that triggers only rules about formatting, the linter will act just like a formatter.