Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: "Carlos E.R." Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,alt.folklore.computers,alt.unix.geeks Subject: Re: What is wrong with C? (and fond memories of VAX) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2026 13:30:14 +0100 Lines: 33 Message-ID: References: <10j9a1l$1toj$1@gal.iecc.com> <10j9vvr$23cp$2@gal.iecc.com> <10jb0is$172cb$2@dont-email.me> <679q2mx7o4.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <10jduat$22c54$1@dont-email.me> <10jelfq$2apo7$4@dont-email.me> <8pI6R.1243340$79B9.1051909@fx14.iad> <10jguou$341pn$1@nntp.eternal-september.org> <27cv2mx5fl.ln2@Telcontar.valinor> <4Wc7R.1392895$ACS3.688415@fx17.iad> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net Rgss90muuSN+nktcOaTCjwyQ6pnI2iwYshUSXqvIQoGQIuGh4e X-Orig-Path: Telcontar.valinor!not-for-mail Cancel-Lock: sha1:0k8ICKgrA0VSxFMj+lwJ4RWHR8Y= sha256:ZKaaT3VqRGwN2O62I+AumOyBMy3qkDnnM+/W+zoVA84= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Content-Language: es-ES, en-CA In-Reply-To: <4Wc7R.1392895$ACS3.688415@fx17.iad> Xref: csiph.com comp.os.linux.misc:80670 alt.folklore.computers:233323 alt.unix.geeks:174 On 2026-01-06 19:57, Charlie Gibbs wrote: > On 2026-01-06, Lars Poulsen wrote: > >> On 2026-01-06, Carlos E.R. wrote: >> >>> My C teacher said it was a mistake to use C as an all purpose language, >>> like for userland applications. Using C is the cause of many bugs that a >>> proper language would catch. >>> >>> That was around 1991. >>> >>> He knew. He participated in some study tasked by the Canadian government >>> to study C compilers, but he could not talk about what they wrote. > > What language(s) did he suggest instead? I don't remember if he did. Maybe he told samples, but I think he mostly told us of quirks of the language, things that were errors, but that the compiler did not signal, so that we being aware we would write correct C code. It is possible that current C compilers signal many more problems that back then, but not runtime errors. I would have to seek my hand notes. Mostly accessing variables beyond the end of it. Arrays or strings were the most blatant example. ... -- Cheers, Carlos. ES🇪🇸, EU🇪🇺;