"No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
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Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#2The headline is misleadingly focusing on a soundbite out of the full quote.
"It's a shame, but what can we do? There really isn't anything we can do to prevent memory safety vulnerabilities from happening if the programmer doesn't want to write their code in a robust manner." -- Some (uncredited?) C programmer.
Does C have more footguns as a low level language? Of course. That's part of the freedom of bringing only the baggage a project needs. Sadly, like many dangerous or sharp tools, incorrect use will lead to harms.
If someone has a choice, a safer more modern language can accommodate less skilled practitioners.
Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#3The headline is misleadingly focusing on a soundbite out of the full quote. "It's a shame, but what can we do? There really isn't anything we can do to prevent memory safety vulnerabilities from happening if the programmer doesn't want to write their code in a robust manner." -- Some (uncredited?) C programmer. Does C have more footguns as a low level language? Of course. That's part of the freedom of bringing only t…
The story is satire. But the satire is illustrating true problems and attitudes.
Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#4The headline is misleadingly focusing on a soundbite out of the full quote. "It's a shame, but what can we do? There really isn't anything we can do to prevent memory safety vulnerabilities from happening if the programmer doesn't want to write their code in a robust manner." -- Some (uncredited?) C programmer. Does C have more footguns as a low level language? Of course. That's part of the freedom of bringing only t…
Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#5The headline is misleadingly focusing on a soundbite out of the full quote. "It's a shame, but what can we do? There really isn't anything we can do to prevent memory safety vulnerabilities from happening if the programmer doesn't want to write their code in a robust manner." -- Some (uncredited?) C programmer. Does C have more footguns as a low level language? Of course. That's part of the freedom of bringing only t…
A safer language accommodates every programmer.
Nobody writes flawless code.
Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#6Just in case someone needs the reference, the onion uses '"no way to prevent this" says only nation where this regularly happens' as a reoccurring article at every major school shooting[0], to highlight the frequency of such events and the fact that nothing has really changed since the last one.
[0] https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-na...
Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#7The headline is misleadingly focusing on a soundbite out of the full quote. "It's a shame, but what can we do? There really isn't anything we can do to prevent memory safety vulnerabilities from happening if the programmer doesn't want to write their code in a robust manner." -- Some (uncredited?) C programmer. Does C have more footguns as a low level language? Of course. That's part of the freedom of bringing only t…
It's a deliberate echo of the famous Onion headline about America's absolutely disgraceful pretence that it couldn't do anything about all the shootings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27No_Way_to_Prevent_This,%27_...
> If someone has a choice, a safer more modern language can accommodate less skilled practitioners.
This is the usual mistake. It's not a "skill issue". Footguns are a design mistake, they're much more dangerous than necessary hence the name. As a result the practitioners accomodated by a better language are all those capable of mistake ie all humans.
Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#8The headline is misleadingly focusing on a soundbite out of the full quote. "It's a shame, but what can we do? There really isn't anything we can do to prevent memory safety vulnerabilities from happening if the programmer doesn't want to write their code in a robust manner." -- Some (uncredited?) C programmer. Does C have more footguns as a low level language? Of course. That's part of the freedom of bringing only t…
> only the baggage a project needs
What projects need manual memory management? Those where the hardware costs are comparable to development/maintenance costs. That is much rarer than people think.
RAM is cheap, and few applications really need bespoke allocation. And it's not just a question of skill; even the most disciplined make mistakes. It's one of how much brainpower you want to allocate to... memory allocation.
Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#9Just in case someone needs the reference, the onion uses '"no way to prevent this" says only nation where this regularly happens' as a reoccurring article at every major school shooting[0], to highlight the frequency of such events and the fact that nothing has really changed since the last one. [0] https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-na...
This is also an ongoing series on that blog, if you look at previous entries there's lots with the same title, also about C having buffer overflows
Re: "No way to prevent this" say users of only language where this regularly happens
#10Needs more furries.