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You sure speak surely about "us" like there is just one group of programmers out there. Some people love JavaScript, some people love C. Some people only use pr
by capableweb 5y ago
You sure speak surely about "us" like there is just one group of programmers out there. Some people love JavaScript, some people love C. Some people only use programming languages, some create new ones.
Live and let live, don't tell others what they need.
- rowanG077 5y agoHonestly memory unsafe languages shouldn't be used with exception of very few corner cases. It's the same reason why we no longer allow cars without seatbelts. You don't go around saying that seatbelts shouldn't be mandatory because you don't need them.
- netr0ute 5y agoWhat's with this obsession about what other people do? You don't have to use a memory unsafe language, but others might.
- jolux 5y agoI’m allowed to have opinions about what tools should be used for what. I think it’s fair to say you shouldn’t write a production HTTP service in assembly, for example.
- netr0ute 5y agoThe problem with this is that you're now the Ministry Of Truth of programming tools.
- jolux 5y agoYou're allowed to disagree with me. I don't claim to be the ultimate authority and I have no power to enforce my opinions. If I were your tech lead and you wanted to use Hare for something I would probably say no but we could have a discussion about it and you might convince me otherwise. But that's not the context here. This is a programming forum, so I will speak my mind.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- staticassertion 5y agoDoesn't even make sense. The Ministry of Truth is tasked with rewriting the past to match the present.
- avgcorrection 5y agoWe all have opinions. The 1984 reference is unhinged.
- tonyg 5y agoA person's actions sometimes have effects on other people. Such as not wearing a mask, for example. Or writing some piece of obscure but critical infrastructure with a memory vulnerability that causes all someone's precious apes to be stolen.
- netr0ute 5y ago> Such as not wearing a mask, for example. That's pretty rich
- tonyg 5y agoHow so? I'm sure you take my point: that by indulging selfish wants, we can harm others. Private situations, do what you like; shared or social contexts, not so much.
- netr0ute 5y agoMasks don't even work for many of the things people want them to work for.
- tonyg 5y agoOh, hey! That makes them an even more perfect analogy. They help, massively, protecting others by removing many forms of transmission; but they don't prevent all transmission. Likewise, memory safety helps, massively, protecting others by removing many forms of security vulnerability; but it doesn't prevent all security vulnerability. And, crucially, not to get too far distracted from the original point: both are things we try to make use of where we can, not for ourselves, but for others and for the health of our overall communities. To really spell it out in words of one syllable: that's why people care about whether other people use memory safe languages.
- Starlevel001 5y agoAll the while I have to use broken, unsafe software on a day to day basis I reserve the right to complain about things that make programs broken and unsafe
- throw10920 5y agoThe vast majority of software that I use on a daily basis is broken because of logic errors and/or performance problems, not crashes due to memory unsafety. The former has nothing to do with memory safety, and the latter isn't solvable at all by programming language design. I'm not saying that memory unsafety isn't a problem, but if you really want to make software better, you should address the biggest problems first.
- rowanG077 5y agoBecause software is generally written so that people use it. Memory unsafe languages have proven it's impossible to write secure software in, even by the best of the best developers. That's why I made the comparison with seatbelts. If you want to drive your car on public roads(deliver production software to users) you are not allowed to use memory unsafe languages(you must use a seatbelt). If you just make software for yourself that you don't release to the public no one will care if you write it in C or whatever. It has nothing to do with anything you do. It has everything to do with the impact it has on everyone but yourself.
- flyingfences 5y agoI can assure you, the automotive industry uses more C/C++ than you've ever seen. C is used precisely because it's a mature and verifiable language.
- rowanG077 5y agoI'm not sure what your point is. I didn't claim memory unsafe languages aren't used, they obviously are. C is in fact not an easy language to verify. There have gone trillions of dollars into that and it's still not solved. You can't verify C. You might be able to verify a subset of C. But if you are in any position to choose any other language you should run, run, run quickly and far away from C.
- flyingfences 5y agoMy point is that your metaphor about "not [being] allowed to use memory unsafe languages" to build a car is completely backwards -- safety-critical embedded systems use C to avoid the abstractions introduced by higher-level languages.
- rowanG077 5y agoIt's not backwards. C is used out of necessity not because it's such a great language. Safety-critical embedded systems use C because they have to. Not because it's nice. Claiming they do because C is such a great language to write safety-critical software in is a special kind of Stockholm syndrome.
- staticassertion 5y ago> You don't have to use a memory unsafe language, but others might. And we're telling them they shouldn't.
- pjmlp 5y agoI personly don't, yet they land on hardware devices and servers I am not asked about, and have an impact on my digitial life.
- throw10920 5y agoLet me quote the part of the comment that you didn't read: > but for code that’s supposed to be used in production it’s useless This isn't about doing what you love - it's about engineering a product, a product that needs to have certain safety, security, and stability guarantees. That's the context of this conversation, and for that purpose, Hare isn't suitable.