4 ms·

Not true, taking on C or C++ dependencies has different potential consequences than taking on Java or Python dependencies

• mgaunard 3y ago
  Which are?
  • chubot 3y ago
    Non-local bugs due to memory safety. If I have a function def f(x) return ... in Python or Java, those functions will work regardless of what other modules I import. (modulo monkey patching in Python, though you can defend against that) In C you don't have these guarantees -- foreign code can stomp on your code. This is probably why C does not have an NPM-like culture of importing thousands of transitive dependencies -- because that style would just fall down. Also a minor issue, but C doesn't have namespaces (for vars or macros), so it's a bit harder to compose foreign code. Also compiler flags don't necessarily compose. Different pieces of C code make different portability assumptions, and different tradeoffs for speed.
    • mgaunard 3y ago
      So your argument is that C does not have strong module encapsulation, then you argue that Python does. That is just plain false, since a Python module can trivially be tainted by what you import before, and the Python environment is widely known for its dependency hell. Meanwhile C modules, once compiled, can be fully isolated from what you link against them, depending on build and link settings. Non-local bugs is just a matter of sharing state across a module boundary. Memory errors is just a very small subset of the possible bugs you can have in a program, and preventing them doesn't magically solve all the other more important bugs.