[Info-vax] VAX Macro to C conversion

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 7/10/19 1:55 PM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Bill Gunshannon  <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 7/10/19 10:06 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>> Bill Gunshannon  <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> * no string type
>>>>
>>>> So what?  What's so great about a string type?  Fortran
>>>> didn't have it until 77.  Pascal didn't have it until UCSD.
>>>
>>> Some of Arne's complaints about C are kind of silly, but this is a really
>>> huge one.
>>>
>>> If you look at CERT advisories regarding security vulnerabilities in the
>>> past few decades, you will see that the vast majority of them are the direct
>>> consequence of poor management of null-terminated strings.
>>>
>>> I know, the null-terminated string thing seemed like a good idea, and easy
>>> to graft onto C, but in the end it has been a terrible, terrible plan and
>>> has cost us greatly.
>>
>> 1.  Null Terminated Strings are not unique to C.
> 
> Sadly this is true.
> 
>> 2.  The competent programmer knows all of this in the first place
>>      and should write his programs accordingly.  Just because the
>>      language doesn't range check automatically (COBOL doesn't
>>      either, probably for the same reason) doesn't mean the
>>      programmer can't  or shouldn't.
>>
>> Read  my lips.  It's not the language.
> 
> Languages are designed to make programmers more effective, not less.
> --scott
> 


And, as was discovered with Ada (as well as others) it doesn't
always work out that way.

bill