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Which makes it all the worse, because he's using that as "proof" that he has done more due diligence than these other devs, and suggesting that they could achie

Which makes it all the worse, because he's using that as "proof" that he has done more due diligence than these other devs, and suggesting that they could achieve just-as-good-or-better results by emulating him (which is provably false given the nature of C vs rust when it comes to bugs). For a calculator it may be no huge deal to have such a cavalier attitude. But for cryptography, bugs are considerably more important as the threat model isn't even in the same league.

ghoward 6y ago
Author here. The fact that I _could have had_ a cavalier attitude towards C memory safety, but didn't, shows (I believe) just how much the Cryptography authors fell short because _they were writing crypto_. If anything, they should have surpassed the amount of due diligence that I did on bc, but they didn't.
- kstenerud 6y ago
  It's easy to look back in hindsight and take potshots based on everything someone did wrong. There's not a project out there where you couldn't do this. I took a quick look over the thread, and TBH I find the authors' reasons and explanations compelling, logical, and respectful (their FAQ, the fact that they polled the users almost a year ago, the fact that they announced their intentions in advance, and how to deal with the impending changes). I suggest you re-think your approach; this won't reflect well.
  - ghoward 6y ago
    Your arguments are fair. However, can you tell me more what you mean about rethinking my approach? I am not sure what approach you are referring to.
    - kstenerud 6y ago
      I mean escalating a minor dust-up into a blog post about their wrongs, and then further pushing it in a worldwide forum (HN). I don't mean to be rude, but as a disinterested third party, the optics of all of this and your handling of a disagreement reflect badly upon you. At some point in the future after you've cooled off, you'll probably delete the post (but better sooner than later!)
      - ghoward 6y ago
        I actually don't see what you said as being rude, just honest, and I appreciate that. I actually let myself cool down before I wrote the post. I was going to write the post right after I saw the GitHub issue, but I sat on it for awhile, thinking through my thoughts. It's unfortunate that such a dust-up (which wasn't minor, by the way; it got published in LWN, see https://lwn.net/Articles/845535/ https://lwn.net/Articles/845535/) was a perfect way to make arguments against Rust that I have wanted to make. And I wanted to make them because if Rust can be as portable as C, I would LOVE that!

ghoward 6y ago

Author here. The fact that I _could have had_ a cavalier attitude towards C memory safety, but didn't, shows (I believe) just how much the Cryptography authors fell short because _they were writing crypto_. If anything, they should have surpassed the amount of due diligence that I did on bc, but they didn't.

kstenerud 6y ago
It's easy to look back in hindsight and take potshots based on everything someone did wrong. There's not a project out there where you couldn't do this. I took a quick look over the thread, and TBH I find the authors' reasons and explanations compelling, logical, and respectful (their FAQ, the fact that they polled the users almost a year ago, the fact that they announced their intentions in advance, and how to deal with the impending changes). I suggest you re-think your approach; this won't reflect well.
- ghoward 6y ago
  Your arguments are fair. However, can you tell me more what you mean about rethinking my approach? I am not sure what approach you are referring to.
  - kstenerud 6y ago
    I mean escalating a minor dust-up into a blog post about their wrongs, and then further pushing it in a worldwide forum (HN). I don't mean to be rude, but as a disinterested third party, the optics of all of this and your handling of a disagreement reflect badly upon you. At some point in the future after you've cooled off, you'll probably delete the post (but better sooner than later!)
    - ghoward 6y ago
      I actually don't see what you said as being rude, just honest, and I appreciate that. I actually let myself cool down before I wrote the post. I was going to write the post right after I saw the GitHub issue, but I sat on it for awhile, thinking through my thoughts. It's unfortunate that such a dust-up (which wasn't minor, by the way; it got published in LWN, see https://lwn.net/Articles/845535/ https://lwn.net/Articles/845535/) was a perfect way to make arguments against Rust that I have wanted to make. And I wanted to make them because if Rust can be as portable as C, I would LOVE that!