[Info-vax] Whither VMS?

[Richard B. Gilbert]

Bill Gunshannon wrote:
> 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?  :-)
>


Show me the Fortran code and I can probably figure it out.  I used to do 
that sort of thing for a living 1970-1994.  If you have a WATFOR or 
WATFIV compiler it will probably point out one or more errors in the code.