4 ms·

> idiots This is a million times wrong. It's not about humans being smart or stupid, it's about humans being bad at being careful millions and millions of time

by b6 14y ago

> idiots This is a million times wrong. It's not about humans being smart or stupid, it's about humans being bad at being careful millions and millions of times without error. The answer isn't to tell them to be more careful. They can be more careful, but they are human, so they will still make mistakes. The answer is for them to use higher level languages that eliminate whole classes of errors.

S4M 14y ago
I think the GP is calling them "idiots" not because they use C in a dumb way, but because they keep using a language that is error-prone.
- mikeash 14y ago
  "You can't really have a totally safe systems programming language (correct me if I'm wrong here)." He doesn't seem to think that others would be better.
  - jdboyd 14y ago
    A type system that isn't 100% safe can still be a massive improvement over C or even C++.
    - mikeash 14y ago
      Sure, but from the overall tone of the comment, it seems clear that he's blaming the "idiots", not the "C", because his only statement about alternatives to C is that they'll have similar problems.
      - hp50g 14y ago
        You are correct :)
- hp50g 14y ago
  You are wrong: I'm calling them idiots because they use C in a dumb way and don't stick it through valgrind etc.