[Info-vax] C limitations, was: Re: VMS process communication

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2023-03-28 00:47, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Johnny Billquist  <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
>> On 2023-03-27 14:27, Simon Clubley wrote:
>>> On 2023-03-25, Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:
>>>> bill  <bill.gunshannon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> I am a big fan of C and I definitely think null-terminated strings
>>>> were a mistake.  There are syntax issues in C that I don't like, but
>>>> there is nothing in the same order of magnitude as null terminated
>>>> strings.
>>>>
>>>> But, at the time C was made, the notion that people would attempt to
>>>> deliberately cause software to malfunction seemed alien.  It no longer
>>>> is, and as the world has changed the design decisions that seem appropriate
>>>> may have changed as well.
>>>
>>> In this very different world, gets() was once considered to be an acceptable
>>> function. :-)
>>
>> That one is bad in a way that is hard to defend.
> 
> It was easy to defend in 1978.  But we do not live in 1978 anymore.

I don't think it was defendable in 1978 either, but it was easy to use.

   Johnny