[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <nuvpc5ppo1sdropbtajvfdas7t7l6i5mbk at 4ax.com>,
	jls <notvalid at yahoo.com> writes:
> On Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:48:02 -0400, "Richard B. Gilbert"
> <rgilbert88 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>>Bob Koehler wrote:
>>> In article <7ire14F32vm9nU2 at mid.individual.net>, billg999 at cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes:
>>>> And once again we blame the language for the incompetence (or just plain
>>>> laziness) of the programmers.
>>> 
>>>    That's like blaiming the carpenter who loses his hand to a circular
>>>    saw without a blade guard.  The saw should have had the blade guard.
>>> 
>>
>>Yes but the carpenter should not have used a power saw without a blade 
>>guard.  You may remove or disable blade guards for your convenience but 
>>if you do you deserve whatever happens to you.
> 
> The analogy between C programming and the blade guard on the saw would
> make sense to me if we agreed that C programming "guards" are similar
> to me buying a saw, but having to build my own blade guard to keep
> safe.
> 
> In the saw's blade guard example, though, the company that makes the
> saw designs and implements the blade guard on the product.  There is
> no such thing for C programming, and instead everyone is left to
> implement their own safeguards.

You are assuming the analogy was the guard when in fact it is the proper
use of the tool.  Using the saw without a guard is improper use.  Writing
C programs without the proper knowledge of the effects of various actions
resulting in bad programs is not the languages fault.

And for those who seem to think this is a C unique problem, I have seen
numerous overflow problems in both COBOL and Fortran programs.  I have
even written programs in COBOL to specifically demonstrate that behaviour.
I have seen programs in Fortran that had wierd "segment violation" (for
want a better term) errors that just seemed to disappear when a programmer
inserted PRINT statements into the code to try and debug it.  Anyone care
to guess why this would happen?  :-)

No programming language is immune to the effects of errors.  That's why
we study and learn and experiment and write programs in a constant effort
to improve our ability to write programs. "If it was easy, everyone would
do it", Tom Hanks in "A League of Their Own".  :-)

bill
 

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>