[Info-vax] Rust as a HS language, was: Re: Quiet?

[Arne Vajhøj]

On 4/6/2022 12:08 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> On 4/5/22 20:20, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> On 4/5/2022 8:08 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>>> On 4/5/22 19:46, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>>>> C and C++ are currently dominating the low level code area, but
>>>> there are some well known problem.
>>>>
>>>> Two of those problems are:
>>>> * buffer overruns
>>>> * memory leaks
>>>
>>> Both those problems were fixed 40 years ago.  The fixes were
>>> ignored and the company offering Safe C went out of business.
>>
>> They were not fixed as the current C compilers allow
>> the problems.
>>
>> Maybe they could have been fixed, but that does not really
>> help those with C code today.
> 
> Let me re-word that.  40 years ago the problems were well known
> and documented.  A company created a C compiler and support package
> to fix it.  The industry rejected it because the cost (and I don't
> mean the purchase price!) was too high.
> 
> It is interesting that very little of this made it into the C
> Standard which is when they could have fixed all of it.  And
> they can't use the backwards compatibility argument because
> there was no compatibility maintained between K&R and ANSI C.

How much is known about why that product failed?

I could have been the overhead. But I doubt it. Many languages
from that era did either check or had the option of enabling checks.

And today it would almost certainly not have been an issue. Most
languages check.

Arne