3 ms·
Huh, it's almost as if the foundation of all the devices we use on a daily basis are written in some language that apparently isn't possible to write correctly.
by vvanders 10y ago
Huh, it's almost as if the foundation of all the devices we use on a daily basis are written in some language that apparently isn't possible to write correctly.
- DanWaterworth 10y agoThat's basically true.
- pshc 10y agoThey are mostly reliable (though probably still full of security holes) despite C—made possible by the millions of person-hours thrown at the problem of maintaining large C codebases. Back then, we had no choice. We can do better.
- DanWaterworth 10y agoEssentially all but the most used code-paths with be bug riddled. This paper [1] on finding bugs in C compilers by fuzzing is an interesting case-study. [1] http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4241 http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4241
- astrange 10y agoServer programming isn't even that hard. You could do it in C all day. (Just have good sandboxing for when someone finds an exploit...) Millions of people have been writing C for games, firmware, computer systems without Internet since the 80s on, and they didn't even get software updates. If your server crashes you get a coredump and you can update anytime you want.
- ssalazar 10y agos/isn't possible to write correctly/is difficult to write correctly cheaply in non-trivial applications/ and you pretty much have it. Building higher-level abstractions has historically been a good thing, unless your day job is punching in opcodes.
- vvanders 10y agoI was more poking fun at the hyperbole that it's not possible to hire anyone who writes C at a reasonable rate.