61–70 of 190 posts
Z: K&R's strcpy is broken, e.g., you can forget to null-terminate the string. Mine is safer.
Ohters: It's not broken, of course it'll do something unpredictable if you break its preconditions.
Z: strcpy is still broken.
Others: Your function will break too if you pass it the wrong length.
Z: This cannot happen, K&R strcpy is broken, mine is safe.
Low level languages are tough. Gaining a mastery of C does require knowing quite a few strange rules and quirks and it's certainly a bit harder than learning Python. The C FAQ does a good job of illustrating some of the more confusing parts. Sure, I wish I could write Go instead, but that isn't going to happen on the many embedded systems I work on. This is a rather strange and insulting article. I'm not sure why Zed…
> Low level languages are tough I disagree. Low level languages, especially C, are the easiest to master. K&R book is the only book you need to read to know everything about C. All you need after you understand the fundamentals is a bit of discipline. C++ on the other hand is extremely difficult to master. Just have a look at the rules for Rvalue references and you will see what I mean. It may be easier for a complet…
I am a huge C fan but this is not true at all. C has tons of pitfalls, especially with modern UB-aggressive optimizing compilers. There are a lot of rules you need to be aware of that are not naturally-occurring results of the fundamentals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What in particular makes Rust (or Go or Swift) unsuitable?
Go is unsuitable as a replacement for C because it is garbage collected. End of discussion. Rust is unsuitable as a replacement for C because its memory management is poorly thought out (ie. its a joke). Here's the relevant paragraphs from the Rust FAQ. Really? "Rust avoids the need for GC through its system of ownership and borrowing, but that same system helps with a host of other problems, including resource manag…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What in particular makes Rust (or Go or Swift) unsuitable?
Ironic, but the one think they are missing is an easy convenient way to call C libraries. Rust is very promising language, but unless you plan to write everything from scratch, you have to depend on 3rd party driver implementations for most stuff. Databases for example. There isn't a single database vendor that has Rust drivers.
Low level languages are tough. Gaining a mastery of C does require knowing quite a few strange rules and quirks and it's certainly a bit harder than learning Python. The C FAQ does a good job of illustrating some of the more confusing parts. Sure, I wish I could write Go instead, but that isn't going to happen on the many embedded systems I work on. This is a rather strange and insulting article. I'm not sure why Zed…
> Low level languages are tough I disagree. Low level languages, especially C, are the easiest to master. K&R book is the only book you need to read to know everything about C. All you need after you understand the fundamentals is a bit of discipline. C++ on the other hand is extremely difficult to master. Just have a look at the rules for Rvalue references and you will see what I mean. It may be easier for a complet…
Absolutely not.
I can't really speak for Zed's expertise and/or value to the programming community. From what I gather, a few of his projects are widely used (Mongrel comes to mind), and he seems to know his stuff pretty well. I also identify strongly with his Programming Motherfucker[0] rant. But man, the guy is insecure to the point of requiring therapy or something. He seems obsessed with his image and status, and the slightest c…
Despite having a veneer of a good comment, well written, sourced with links, and starting with some (faint) praise - it's actually just an ad hominem, and not appropriate here.
I can't really speak for Zed's expertise and/or value to the programming community. From what I gather, a few of his projects are widely used (Mongrel comes to mind), and he seems to know his stuff pretty well. I also identify strongly with his Programming Motherfucker[0] rant. But man, the guy is insecure to the point of requiring therapy or something. He seems obsessed with his image and status, and the slightest c…
I can't really speak for Zed's expertise and/or value to the programming community. From what I gather, a few of his projects are widely used (Mongrel comes to mind), and he seems to know his stuff pretty well. I also identify strongly with his Programming Motherfucker[0] rant. But man, the guy is insecure to the point of requiring therapy or something. He seems obsessed with his image and status, and the slightest c…
In commenting on how Zed thinks too much about his self-image, you criticise how he comes across image-wise...
I don't have an opinion on the actual topic, but whether someone's goal is others' perception of them, or they are just poorly optimizing it as a proxy for their sense of self worth, attacking every criticism head on could undermine how others perceive them, or it could waste their time and mental energy compared to other things they actually care about more than the measure of their achievements based on others perceptions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Low level languages are tough I disagree. Low level languages, especially C, are the easiest to master. K&R book is the only book you need to read to know everything about C. All you need after you understand the fundamentals is a bit of discipline. C++ on the other hand is extremely difficult to master. Just have a look at the rules for Rvalue references and you will see what I mean. It may be easier for a complet…
> K&R book is the only book you need to read to know everything about C. All you need after you understand the fundamentals is a bit of discipline. I am a huge C fan but this is not true at all. C has tons of pitfalls, especially with modern UB-aggressive optimizing compilers. There are a lot of rules you need to be aware of that are not naturally-occurring results of the fundamentals.
Maybe I live in a C reality distortion field. :)