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These kinds of code issues aren't unique to bash. Just take a look at almost any FOSS project with a bit of history, say GCC, GNU binutils or Xorg, and you'll f
by dezgeg 12y ago
These kinds of code issues aren't unique to bash. Just take a look at almost any FOSS project with a bit of history, say GCC, GNU binutils or Xorg, and you'll find the same issues in those projects.
IMNSHO the real issue is with the developers itself. A huge amount of them seem to be stuck in the 80s and anything invented in the field of software engineering is just ignored by them. Like there are plenty of programming languages now with saner string handling, but no, C89 or pre-ANSI C it is.
- lucb1e 12y ago> almost any FOSS project Though we will probably never know, I bet having legacy code isn't exclusive for open source projects.
- keithpeter 12y agoHow long would it take to re-write the code base to modern standards? Perhaps some of the very large companies who consume this code could contribute to the cost.
- nknighthb 12y agoI think your great-great-great grandchildren have other plans than to be introducing new bugs in a misguided quest to make old code more aesthetically pleasing.
- keithpeter 12y agoExactly the point I was making. Rapid response to vulnerabilities found and perhaps even a bounty on new ones might be the more time efficient approach.
- ams6110 12y agoRemember a lot of these projects have portability goals. They are not just developing on Linux on an x86 architecture. C is one of the few choices that is available on most computing platforms.