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Re: VMS

From John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.os.linux.misc
Subject Re: VMS
Date 2025-07-21 09:12 -0700
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <20250721091242.00007573@gmail.com> (permalink)
References (8 earlier) <20250625093213.00002ec2@gmail.com> <20250625094418.00007fd2@gmail.com> <v_2dnfjqXOtB4sH1nZ2dnZfqnPqdnZ2d@giganews.com> <105iv02$3cuhr$2@dont-email.me> <wwvzfcy0z3n.fsf@LkoBDZeT.terraraq.uk>

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On Mon, 21 Jul 2025 08:42:04 +0100
Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> Conservative upper bounds of this kind address two issues:
> 
> 1) The possibility that you made a mistake in working out the upper
>    bound. Off-by-one errors are such a common category that they get
>    their own name; adding even 1 byte of headroom neutralizes them.
> 
>    If you think only “sloppy” programmers make this kind of mistake
> then you’re deluded. A more competent programmer may make fewer
> mistakes but no human is perfect.
> 
> 2) Approximation can make analysis easier. Why spend an hour proving
>    that the maximum size something can be is 37 bytes if a few seconds
>    mental arithmetic will prove it’s at most 64 bytes? (Unless you
>    have 1980s quantities of RAM, of course.)

Sure, memory is cheap and we can often afford reasonably over-specced
buffer sizes in Our Modern Age - but the fundamental problem remains.
Treating "a little extra just to be on the safe side" as a ward against
buffer overruns or other boundary errors is pretty much guaranteed to
run into trouble down the line, and no amount of "nobody's perfect...!"
will change that. If you're not working in a language that does bounds-
checking for you, and your design is not one where you can say with
*100% certainty* that boundary errors are literally impossible, CHECK
YER DANG BOUNDS. Simple as that.

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Thread

Re: VMS Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2025-07-20 14:37 +0000
  Re: VMS Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-21 08:42 +0100
    Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-21 09:12 -0700
      Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-21 18:44 +0100
      Re: VMS Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-21 20:47 +0100
        Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-21 13:31 -0700
          Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-23 07:22 +0100
            Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-23 08:04 -0700
              Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-23 08:44 -0700
              Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-23 20:04 +0100
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-23 22:47 +0000
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-24 09:56 +0100
              Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-23 21:53 +0100
                Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-23 14:28 -0700
                Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-24 00:29 +0100
                Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-24 08:05 -0700
                Re: VMS Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-24 21:51 +0100
                Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-24 15:06 -0700
                Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-25 07:06 +0100
                Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-25 10:39 -0700
                Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-26 17:54 +0100
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-26 18:02 +0100
                Re: VMS Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> - 2025-07-27 04:04 +0000
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-27 01:50 -0400
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-27 12:07 +0100
                Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-27 10:23 +0100
                Re: VMS Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-27 10:55 +0100
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-27 21:23 -0400
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-28 04:45 +0000
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-28 02:14 -0400
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-28 13:48 +0100
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-28 20:38 +0000
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-28 20:32 +0000
                Re: VMS Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-07-28 14:17 -0700
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-29 05:08 +0000
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-28 13:44 +0100
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-28 13:39 +0100
                Re: VMS Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-07-29 01:03 +0000
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-29 05:29 +0000
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-29 11:42 +0100
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-29 19:16 +0000
                Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-29 12:10 +0100
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-29 13:08 +0100
                Re: VMS Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2025-07-29 09:51 -0700
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-29 18:53 +0000
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-29 04:51 -0400
                Re: VMS Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2025-07-29 13:32 +0000
                Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-28 09:22 -0700
                Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-27 12:11 +0100
                Re: VMS Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-07-27 22:02 +0000
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-28 04:58 +0000
                Re: VMS Stéphane CARPENTIER <sc@fiat-linux.fr> - 2025-08-01 19:13 +0000
                Re: VMS Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2025-08-01 20:38 +0000
                Re: VMS Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-02 00:01 +0000
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-02 02:24 -0400
                Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-08-02 11:34 +0100
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-02 21:02 -0400
                Re: VMS Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-08-03 02:08 +0000
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-08-03 01:00 -0400
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-27 21:31 -0400
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-28 05:03 +0000
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-28 02:19 -0400
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-27 21:09 -0400
                Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-28 10:17 -0700
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-28 20:46 +0000
                Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-28 14:34 -0700
                Re: VMS Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-07-28 16:34 +0000
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-28 20:48 +0000
                Re: VMS Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-07-29 01:00 +0000
                Re: VMS Pancho <Pancho.Jones@protonmail.com> - 2025-07-29 10:07 +0100
                Re: VMS Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-07-29 23:05 +0000
                Re: VMS c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> - 2025-07-30 02:43 -0400
                Re: VMS Andreas Eder <a_eder_muc@web.de> - 2025-08-02 18:11 +0200
                Re: VMS Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-07-24 14:42 +0000
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-24 18:05 +0000
                Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-24 11:14 -0700
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-24 23:10 +0000
                Re: VMS Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2025-07-24 21:16 +0000
                Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-24 23:21 +0000
        Re: VMS John Ames <commodorejohn@gmail.com> - 2025-07-21 14:05 -0700
        Re: VMS Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2025-07-21 21:14 +0000
          Re: VMS The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2025-07-21 22:19 +0100
          Re: VMS rbowman <bowman@montana.com> - 2025-07-22 02:10 +0000

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