11–20 of 108 posts
If all people started writing code with more RAII and Smart Pointers this would be a better world. Talking about C, well... it's unsafe by nature, let's face it.
If all people started writing code in a modern C++ equivalent called Rust this would be a better world. After all in comparison Rust is safe by nature unlike C or C++. :)
I'll consider once the Mozilla foundation have written any application of note in it.
> This propensity for today’s working programs to be broken tomorrow is what I mean when I say these languages are not future proof. It doesn't matter. This is not how programming works in the real world. In the real world, you write the most correct program you can under time pressure. A new compiler, operating system, or platform arrives that exposes a bug. You fix it and you move on. It doesn't matter if the langu…
The particular kind of not-future-proofness he has in mind seems pretty practically important: code that relies on this undefined behavior often suffers from exploitable security holes. Just because computing is complex doesn't mean you have a free pass if you shoot yourself (or your customers) in the foot the same way the previous 100 folks did. If it happens enough, it becomes prudent to do something about it, like…
I've written Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox, PlayStation, PSP, iOS, and Android code. The memory model is subtly different for each platform. I just don't think you can define certain behaviour and have that work across disparate platforms.
I haven't really written any device drivers or kernel space code but I would imagine it would make the job even more difficult.
> This propensity for today’s working programs to be broken tomorrow is what I mean when I say these languages are not future proof. It doesn't matter. This is not how programming works in the real world. In the real world, you write the most correct program you can under time pressure. A new compiler, operating system, or platform arrives that exposes a bug. You fix it and you move on. It doesn't matter if the langu…
If all people started writing code with more RAII and Smart Pointers this would be a better world. Talking about C, well... it's unsafe by nature, let's face it.
If all people started writing code in a modern C++ equivalent called Rust this would be a better world. After all in comparison Rust is safe by nature unlike C or C++. :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If all people started writing code in a modern C++ equivalent called Rust this would be a better world. After all in comparison Rust is safe by nature unlike C or C++. :)
Really? I should switch my apps from C++ to an unfinished language? I'll consider once the Mozilla foundation have written any application of note in it.
The fundamental "problem" we're having/facing with C and C++ is the investments we've put in. Lots of "infrastructure" in modern day computing relies on C and C++ and will do so for ages. We can't just drop the projects and switch to something else(say Rust or maybe Go), but we can stop creating new C and C++ codebases to alleviate the problem for the future.
> This propensity for today’s working programs to be broken tomorrow is what I mean when I say these languages are not future proof. It doesn't matter. This is not how programming works in the real world. In the real world, you write the most correct program you can under time pressure. A new compiler, operating system, or platform arrives that exposes a bug. You fix it and you move on. It doesn't matter if the langu…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The particular kind of not-future-proofness he has in mind seems pretty practically important: code that relies on this undefined behavior often suffers from exploitable security holes. Just because computing is complex doesn't mean you have a free pass if you shoot yourself (or your customers) in the foot the same way the previous 100 folks did. If it happens enough, it becomes prudent to do something about it, like…
> His suggestion #3, that the standards should define more of the commonly used behavior and leave less of it undefined, wouldn't even require C programmers to do anything about it themselves. I've written Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox, PlayStation, PSP, iOS, and Android code. The memory model is subtly different for each platform. I just don't think you can define certain behaviour and have that work across disparate pl…
Same with other high-level VM based languages like Python...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If all people started writing code in a modern C++ equivalent called Rust this would be a better world. After all in comparison Rust is safe by nature unlike C or C++. :)
Really? I should switch my apps from C++ to an unfinished language? I'll consider once the Mozilla foundation have written any application of note in it.
If all people started writing code with more RAII and Smart Pointers this would be a better world. Talking about C, well... it's unsafe by nature, let's face it.
If all people started writing code in a modern C++ equivalent called Rust this would be a better world. After all in comparison Rust is safe by nature unlike C or C++. :)
Why is this on HN?
Use the right tool for the job. Sometimes that C or C++, sometimes it's not.