Have you every used Lint for C code? Or Coverity or Perl::Critic or FindBugs or PyChecker or PMD or CodePro or Clang or Checkstyle or Oink or Dehydra?

These are tools that look at source or object code and recommend bug and style fixes. On the plus, they identify profound mistakes you would never find on your own. On the minus, they consume programmer time making code conform to questionable standards while masking real bugs.

I’m a Perl::Critic developer (we’re helping people write readable Perl code!) and have experience with a few comparable tools. I’m not planning a canned presentation (but I do have a Perl::Critic talk that I can perform). Instead would like to swap real-world experiences and speculate on a bright future where code studies code.