[Info-vax] VAX Macro to C conversion

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 7/10/19 9:00 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 7/10/19 8:49 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 7/10/2019 8:42 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 7/10/19 2:20 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> On 7/10/2019 2:15 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>>> On 7/10/19 1:57 PM, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>>>> On 7/10/2019 9:34 AM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>>>>>> On 7/9/19 10:37 PM, Arne Vajhøj 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.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Neither Fortran 77 nor UCSD Pascal are recent.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> And neither is C.
>>>>
>>>> True.
>>>>
>>>> But while Fortran and Pascal fixed the problem, then C
>>>> did not.
>>>
>>> Actually, it did.  A long time ago.
>>> 1983 PDP-11 Software Source Book -- Page 1395
>>> 1986 VAX Software Source Book -- Page 1155
>>>
>>> The Safe C Compiler.
>>>  From Catalytix Corp.
>>>
>>> OSes supported: RSTS, RSX, RT-11, ULTRIX-11, UNIX, ULTRIX-32, VMS.
>>
>> Did it have a string type?
>>
> 
> I seriously doubt it as it then wouldn't have been C.  :-)
> 
> "The language understood by the Safe C Compiler is identical
>   to that understood by the standard C compilers."
> 
> But, it had a lot of the checks people here keep arguing that C
> needs.  Array indexing, Stray Pointers, mismatched formal and
> actual parameters, Misuse of string functions, etc.
> 
> And the industry rejected it completely.  None of its features
> ever showed up in C Compilers that followed.
> 
> So, tell me, why did none of these things find their way into
> the VMS C Compilers?

You know, makes one wonder.  Why did ANSI change so much trivial
stuff when the modified K&R to create ANSI-C and not fix any of
these supposed shortcomings?

Why did VMS versions of C not fix any of this?  There is nothing
in the language that prevents range checking or array boundaries.
Why do people continue to complain and yet no one "fixes" stuff
that was actually fixed over 40 years ago?

bill