[Info-vax] Userland programming languages on VMS.

[Bill Gunshannon]

On 1/29/22 20:11, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 1/29/2022 7:45 PM, Bill Gunshannon wrote:
>> On 1/29/22 19:26, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>>> Pascal is pretty limited but makes it hard to shoot yourself in the 
>>> foot.
>>> And most implementations don't use null-terminated strings which are the
>>> most serious source of vulnerabilities in C code.
>>
>> Isn't it time to drop this red herring.  C was not the only and
>> probably not the first to use null terminated strings.
> 
> C and C++ are the only widely used languages only using
> a terminator marker for strings.

Can't verify that as I don't know the internals of the many
language du jour today.  But, as I said, when it started it
was not limited to C and probably didn't originate there.

> 
>>                                                        If anyone
>> really cared it could have been fixed ages ago (it actually was
>> in Safe C and we see how much acceptance that got!!)
> 
> People do care.
> 
> But the typical choice is to switch to another language - not to
> ask for fundamental changes to C.

As I stated, the problem was fixed, in  a version of C and
the company faded into oblivion with no one pushing for it's
widespread use.

> 
> C is almost dead in business applications. 

As it should be.

>                                             It is still big in
> platform software. 

As it should be.  :-)

>                      But even though Microsoft and Linux are
> pretty far from each other in many aspects then they do share
> an interest in looking at Rust as replacement for C.

I will not be holding my breathe waiting for Unix to be re-written
in Rust.

bill