4 ms·

"How to C in 2016" Don't. C has outlived its usefulness. It's time to move on to more expressive languages. The fact that buffer overflows are still a thing

"How to C in 2016" Don't. C has outlived its usefulness. It's time to move on to more expressive languages. The fact that buffer overflows are still a thing in 2016 should be an embarrassment to the industry.

na85 11y ago
Not everyone can run node or V8 on their embedded microcontroller.
- ThatGeoGuy 11y ago
  Perhaps, but Rust and Chicken Scheme are probably applicable in many of these cases (embedded microcontroller). Few people in the field give either of these any appreciation, despite being viable. I will agree that "Don't use C ever" is maybe a poor attitude to take as there are definitely projects that need C as a hard requirement; however, I think your snark is somewhat unjustified as we do have languages that compile to C or compile with no runtime that can beat C in some of these areas that traditionally have been dominated by C.
Gibbon1 11y ago
Personal opinion, people are generally way too concerned about buffer overflows in C. Meaning if you have issues with buffer overflows the root cause is you are seriously writing C the wrong way circa 2016. When I hear buffer overflows I think. Programmer trying to be smarter than he is. Depreciated unsafe string functions. Unnecessary pointer arithmetic. No unit tests Failing to use static code analysis tools
- admax88q 11y ago
  > Personal opinion, people are generally way too concerned about buffer overflows in C My only concern about buffer overflows in C is that memory error continue to happen in software that I depend upon in my daily life. Chrome, Firefox, Linux, OpenSSL, all these things suffer memory errors that compromise my security. Anyone doing security work in C in 2016 is in my opinion committing malpractice and putting user's at risk because their ego's can't take not fiddling bits by hand.

4 ms·

"How to C in 2016" Don't. C has outlived its usefulness. It's time to move on to more expressive languages. The fact that buffer overflows are still a thing

by admax88q 11y ago

na85 11y ago
Not everyone can run node or V8 on their embedded microcontroller.
- ThatGeoGuy 11y ago
  Perhaps, but Rust and Chicken Scheme are probably applicable in many of these cases (embedded microcontroller). Few people in the field give either of these any appreciation, despite being viable. I will agree that "Don't use C ever" is maybe a poor attitude to take as there are definitely projects that need C as a hard requirement; however, I think your snark is somewhat unjustified as we do have languages that compile to C or compile with no runtime that can beat C in some of these areas that traditionally have been dominated by C.
Gibbon1 11y ago
Personal opinion, people are generally way too concerned about buffer overflows in C. Meaning if you have issues with buffer overflows the root cause is you are seriously writing C the wrong way circa 2016. When I hear buffer overflows I think. Programmer trying to be smarter than he is. Depreciated unsafe string functions. Unnecessary pointer arithmetic. No unit tests Failing to use static code analysis tools
- admax88q 11y ago
  > Personal opinion, people are generally way too concerned about buffer overflows in C My only concern about buffer overflows in C is that memory error continue to happen in software that I depend upon in my daily life. Chrome, Firefox, Linux, OpenSSL, all these things suffer memory errors that compromise my security. Anyone doing security work in C in 2016 is in my opinion committing malpractice and putting user's at risk because their ego's can't take not fiddling bits by hand.