Yep, you're absolutely right--but it was a time when the entire world wasn't networked to the degree it is today, and there was little or no motivation for some

Yep, you're absolutely right--but it was a time when the entire world wasn't networked to the degree it is today, and there was little or no motivation for someone thousands of miles away to gain access to your system. Security was simply less of a concern for most programmers, so much so that it often didn't even occur to them. Until the mid-1980s, even US federal law and its enforcement reflected that. Saying it is indefensible to manipulate strings in C is coming pretty close to saying it is indefensible to use C (and after they went to all that work to put together C11!). For most programmers, perhaps. But it still has its uses, and as of C11 safer standard string manipulation functions, as well. A competent, security-minded C programmer can write perfectly safe string handling code in modern C. Still, it wouldn't be my first choice. A Jedi may use a lightsaber effectively, but a novice will probably just end up cutting off his leg.