On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 12:07:10AM -0400, Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre wrote: > Agree, but I don't think the fact that it's unsafe makes it obsolete.
I'm 100% for gun control, but calling a gun unsafe because you shoot yourself in the foot isn't really accurate. Some people shouldn't hold hot coffee in paper cups, either. It's fashionable to blame the language for poor programmer behaviour but it is a cop out. In the same vein, I suppose that assembly is unsafe, obsolete too. This whole conversation is always seated in the theoretical and abstract imaginary world of some perfect language that will correct all bad programmer behaviours. Frankly, experienced C programmers get stuff done. It's not going anywhere anytime soon. > I think not restricting it is perfectly acceptable. People know to be > extra careful when they have to write C, and to get code reviews and > write tests. Or at least I hope they do. I think you're description of the situation is inaccurate. It's not a question of extra careful. In C, you cannot be lazy and imprecise with little or no design. If you're not precise, careful and thoughtful, you're not a professional in whatever language you're using. > we're still in full agreement there. C isn't fit for all jobs. Perhaps > it's getting chosen a little too fast in many cases, but then, it > *does* deliver, despite the high price to pay as a developer for You're entirely correct. > It's a far better idea to use <insert well-known language> than > another niche language, even if the other might be a little better, if The emphasis is on "might". The entire cost of laying all bets on something a "computer scientist" claims is the right approache is something many aren't willing to gamble. > in the long run it means you can get new employees or new contributors > to hit the ground running when they have to touch your software. > Economically, it's a huge win. For small projects, just about anything > will probably do, but as soon as it gets bigger, it becomes > increasingly likely that you can't maintain it alone. I've worked in Modula-3 but I can't take it seriously, nor would I probably actually participate in a project which picked such a language. Same underlying reasons that one contributes to open source... your effort is not going to be wasted, and hopefully can be leveraged by somebody else in the future. I'd go out on a limb and claim that if you write something in C, this is probably the case, if you write something in "better"-design-language-v3, I'd hazard a guess not. -E _______________________________________________ mlug mailing list [email protected] https://listes.koumbit.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mlug-listserv.mlug.ca
